JAPAN International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on behalf of its Government has assigned a national table tennis coach from Japan to assist Table Tennis Jamaica (TTJ) in its development of the sport throughout the island.

The coach is Satoshi Takashima, who is expected to arrive in Jamaica on January 11, 2017. As a former national representative for Japan, he has coached in Bahrain and also the United Arab Emirates.

He will be on a two-year assignment assisting with TTJ.

Kenji Tobita, the resident representative of the JICA, made the announcement at a press conference held at their Jamaica office in New Kingston recently.

Tobita said he was very pleased to meet the president and representatives of TTJ, along with its present coaches, and national representatives — Jamaica’s number one and two players, Simon Tomlinson and Kane Watson, both of whom represented the country at the 2014 World Championships in Japan.

“It is very important our Japan coach works with table tennis in Jamaica as people generally enjoy the sport,” he said.

“On behalf of Japan and JICA, we are pleased to bring a coach to Jamaica. Japan promotes sports for tomorrow and the future and also cultural exchanges to many countries,” Tobita added.

He said Takashima will be the third coach the Japanese Government has assigned to assist with the development of sports in Jamaica. Coaches are assigned to Tennis Jamaica (TJ) and also to swimming for the Jamaica Paraplegics Association (JPA) for a total of two years each.

Tobita added that since 2014 the Japanese Government has placed its coaches at all sports level to assist more than 100 countries in their development.

Meanwhile, TTJ Association President Godfrey Lothian said this was a significant and historic moment to be getting a coach from Japan.

“We thank the Government of Japan for sending one of its top international coaches to Jamaica to develop our skills and techniques of the sport to players who want to go much higher,” he said.

“This is also one of our two-to-three-year strategic plans by the TTJ executives and coaches for Jamaica to become the number one playing country in the Caribbean, and then to challenge the world in the future,” Lothian said.

The TTJ president said one of his most important aims is to set up a table tennis sports centre for the players so that they can have more time to train for at least three to four hours.

“TTJ will be looking to work together with the Social Development Commission on a project in Whitfield Town, and looks forward in the future to carry table tennis at the community levels, so that they can also form table tennis clubs,” explained Lothian.

“We have already seen that the development of the sport is moving quite well and in the right direction, as we have an overall 74 coaches, six course conductors, four Level Three, 15 Level Two, and 49 Level One coaches who have passed their examinations, and it is very good for table tennis,” said the TTJ president.

Meanwhile, national table tennis coach Stephen Grant thanked the Japanese Government for its kind assistance in the development of the sport.