On the occasion of the first meeting of the FIH Executive Board this year, held in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, FIH President Tayyab Ikram met Princess Takamado and said: “I am very honoured to have met Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado. I congratulated her on the qualification of both the Japanese women’s and men’s national hockey teams for the upcoming FIH Hockey World Cup 2026, which will take place in Belgium and the Netherlands in August of this year. I also took this opportunity to present her with World Cup tickets.”
“I also expressed my congratulations on the outstanding performance of Japanese athletes at Milano-Cortina. I look forward to further opportunities to discuss the development of hockey in Japan and beyond with Her Imperial Highness, who is also the patron of Japan hockey, in the future,” the FIH President added.
The Executive Board received a visit from Seiko Hashimoto, President of the Japanese Olympic Committee. A seven-time Olympian and Olympic medallist, Seiko Hashimoto served as Minister for Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment, and the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, and later as President of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee.
“I expressed our deepest gratitude to Seiko Hashimoto for her unwavering support of sport in general, and hockey in particular, over the years, as well as for her outstanding work and commitment at the helm of the organisation of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, which were held under very challenging circumstances, as we all remember,” President Ikram stated.
After the EB meeting, the FIH delegation proceeded to the Oi Hockey Stadium—the venue used for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic hockey tournaments—which was hosting a test match between the women's national teams of Japan and Korea.
Commenting on this visit, the FIH President added: “I’m delighted to have met the players of the Japanese and Korean women’s national teams and to have given them their tickets to the World Cup.”
“The Oi Hockey Stadium symbolises the great legacy of the Olympic Games in the development of hockey around the world”, he concluded.
