By Yuji Kondo

8:30 JST, January 31, 2026

Watching a live broadcast of the Hakone Ekiden, a long-distance running relay held annually on Jan. 2 and 3, has become a New Year’s tradition in Japan. Reaching its 102nd edition this year, the epic road race among elite college athletes boasts television ratings of around 30% in the Kanto area. This popular sporting event has now embarked on reforms that may benefit Japanese long-distance running as a whole.

Twenty-one university teams participate each year: the top 10 finishers from the previous year’s race, 10 schools that pass the qualifying rounds held every October, and a combined student team of selected athletes whose universities did not qualify. The teams are mainly from universities in the Kanto region around Tokyo, but the new reforms aim to broaden the field.

The course spans 10 stages totaling 217.1 kilometers, running from the Yomiuri Shimbun Building in Otemachi, Tokyo, to the shores of Ashinoko lake in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture — and then all the way back. The first day’s outbound leg covers the first five stages from the city to the lake, and the second day’s return leg covers them again in reverse order. A key feature is that the length of each stage is roughly equivalent to a half-marathon. The race uses a light sash called a tasuki instead of a baton, and runners wear it diagonally across their torso as they run.

Particularly exciting and unique are the fifth and sixth stages, which wind along a steep mountain road in Hakone, one of Japan’s premier hot spring resorts. During the Edo period (1603-1867), the mountains of Hakone were called “the most formidable climb in the land” (Tenka no Ken) for travelers on the historic Tokaido road.

Runners on the “mountain-climbing fifth stage” take on this difficult terrain, starting at an elevation of 40 meters, climbing steep slopes, reaching the highest point at 874 meters, and then racing downhill to Ashinoko lake. The sixth stage covers the same ground in reverse,........

© The Japan News