Railway, gas street lights, telegraph, boulevard trees, ice cream. As the Meiji era ushered in the dawn of modernization for Japanese society, Yokohama embraced Western culture ahead of the rest of the nation, becoming the first place in Japan to introduce many of the civilized world’s innovations.
Yamate Park opened in 1870 as the first Western-style park in Japan. The country’s first game of lawn tennis was played in this park in 1876, just two years after the birth of the sport in England.
Yes, Yokohama is “Japan’s birthplace of tennis.”
Yokohama has a deep-rooted connection with this sport.
The arrival of a new season brings good opportunities to enjoy the sport for veteran players and tennis novices alike.
We hope this article encourages the readers to take up tennis.

Information and photos provided by:Yokohama Tennis Association, Specified Non-Profit Corporation Yokohama Soft Tennis Association, Team YUKA, Yokohama Yamate Museum of Tennis
Researched and written and photos provided by: Hiroyuki Yoshiyama (Yokohama Sports Association)

 

Tennis is a sport that many amateurs enjoy both indoors and outdoors throughout the year.
There are a large number of tennis lovers in Yokohama. Besides many private and public tennis courts being available, one reason is that the city has a variety of tournaments and lessons for local residents. Here is a report on the organizations that support these activities.

Yokohama Tennis Association

The Yokohama Tennis Association engages in a wide range of activities to let people appreciate the fun of tennis, with the aims of promoting the sport, helping people improve skills and sharing information among other things.
The organization holds a number of citizens’ tennis tournaments all the year around, including doubles tournaments, which begin in April every year, and team competitions and parent-child doubles and mixed doubles tournaments. It also hosts Citizens’ Tennis School on every third Sunday from April through October as part of its efforts to promote tennis. The school has been around since 1956.
To provide opportunities to improve tennis skills, the association organizes training sessions for junior players, as well as the Yokohama Invitational Indoor Tennis Tournament aimed at raising the skill levels of older players. This has helped Yokohama win the national inter-city tennis tournament in two consecutive years.
In addition to publishing the semiannual newsletter, “Association News,” the Yokohama Tennis Association promptly posts information about tournament results, schedule changes due to rain, etc. on its website(http://homepage3.nifty.com/yta1/), giving players and tennis lovers access to such information.

Specified Non-Profit Corporation
Yokohama Soft Tennis Association

The Yokohama Soft Tennis Association became a specified non-profit corporation in 2006 ahead of many similar organizations in other parts of the nation. To promote soft tennis and raise skill levels, it carries out a vast variety of activities, including citizens’ tournaments, inter-city exchanges, junior player development, tennis schools for local residents (Enjoy Sports Soft Tennis School), Yokohama Championship and Yokohama Indoor Competition.
Among these activities, the organization devotes its efforts particularly to the “Yokohama Junior Soft Tennis Club” project, which it has launched to develop junior players in elementary, junior high and senior high schools.
Under the idea that “sports are essential in child rearing and youth development,” the project places emphasis on the sense of exaltation obtained through sports, educational and health benefits, the meaning of sports promotion, the fostering of a sense of unity among schools, sports teams, parents and local communities, risk management, and safety measures among other things. In this project, the Yokohama Soft Tennis Association not only cooperates with school officials and Junior High and High School Athletic Federations but also has members of amateur club teams of national championship caliber instruct junior players. The project has helped in teaching and spreading soft tennis while at the same time contributing to revitalizing the local communities.

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