Remembering a Friend Who Loved Bhutan and Its Athletes
Yasuo Miyazawa-san: A Friend Bhutan Will Always Remember
By Victor Gurung
Media Head, Team Bhutan – Aichi-Nagoya 2026
As Team Bhutan travels to Japan for the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games, the journey brings back memories of the many Bhutanese athletes who have spent time in Japan over the years. Some came for competitions and training camps. Others stayed for months or years to study and train. They returned home with new sporting experience, new friendships and, for many, a different understanding of what they could achieve.
A significant part of that journey is connected to the late Yasuo Miyazawa-san, founder of SEISA Group and a long-standing friend of Bhutan. Miyazawa-san passed away on 23 March 2022, aged 72. His passing was deeply felt within the Bhutanese sporting community, particularly by the athletes who had met him and received his support during their time in Japan.
Those who knew him remember a man who took a personal interest in the young athletes who came from Bhutan. He visited them during training, spoke with them about their progress and made time for them when they were away from their families. These memories have remained with the athletes long after they returned home. For the Bhutan Olympic Committee, this personal side of Miyazawa-san is an important part of his story.
SEISA was founded in 1972, and Miyazawa-san developed an educational approach that brought together learning, sport and the development of young people. Over the years, that approach became closely connected with Bhutan through the partnership between SEISA Group, the Foundation for Global Children and the Bhutan Olympic Committee.
The opportunities provided through this relationship allowed young Bhutanese to study and train in Japan while continuing their sporting development. Archery, athletics and judo were among the sports to benefit, while cooperation also extended to para-sport and youth development.
One of the most significant examples is the journey of Bhutanese archer Karma.
Karma represented Bhutan at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games through an invitation. She later travelled to Japan for training and competitions after being invited by Miyazawa-san in 2017. SEISA supported her training period with accommodation, food and other assistance, while Miyazawa-san continued to follow the progress of the Bhutanese archers.
He visited the athletes at their training camp in Hakone as they prepared for the Tokyo Olympic Games. In 2019, Karma secured an Olympic quota place at the Asian continental qualification tournament in Bangkok. She earned the place through sporting performance and became the first athlete from Bhutan in any sport to qualify for the Olympic Games through sporting performance.
It was an important moment in the history of Bhutanese sport. When Miyazawa-san passed away three years later, Karma remembered his kindness and generosity towards the athletes. Her memories reflected the close relationship that had developed between him and the Bhutanese sporting community. Karma’s story was followed by the experiences of many other young athletes.
Nidup Dorji and Sonam Choden spent around three years in Japan through the SEISA scholarship programme, studying while continuing their archery training. For young athletes living away from home, those years brought the everyday challenges of adapting to a new country alongside the demands of school and sport. They were part of a group of young Bhutanese who were given the chance to experience Japan from inside the classroom and the training ground. Tshering Penjor followed a similar path through athletics. Penjor travelled to Japan as a SEISA scholarship student and studied at SEISA Kokusai High School before continuing at SEISA University. He arrived in Japan without understanding the Japanese language and had to adjust to a different culture while keeping up with his education and athletics training. It took time.
He learned the language, continued his studies and developed as an athlete. He graduated from SEISA Kokusai High School in 2019 and continued his education at SEISA University. On 19 September 2023, Penjor graduated from university.
Six days later, on 25 September, he travelled to Hangzhou, China, to represent Bhutan at the 19th Asian Games, competing in the 200m and 400m.
For the Bhutan Olympic Committee, Penjor’s journey remains a good example of what long-term athlete development can look like when education and sport are given equal attention. He went to Japan as a young athlete, adjusted to a new environment, completed his education and returned to the international sporting arena representing Bhutan. At the Hangzhou Asian Games, Bhutan had 28 athletes in its delegation. Four of those athletes were SEISA graduates: Sonam Choden in recurve archery, Tandin Wangchuk and Kinley Tshering in judo, and Tshering Penjor in athletics. The four athletes had different sporting backgrounds, but they shared an important part of their development in Japan.
Their stories also illustrate the work that happens away from competition. There are years of training behind every athlete who reaches an Asian Games. There are families who make sacrifices, coaches who continue to guide them, teachers who help them settle into a new environment and organisations that provide the support needed to keep the journey going. Miyazawa-san and SEISA were part of that support system for many Bhutanese athletes.
His involvement with Bhutan also extended into para-sport. A memorandum of understanding between the Bhutan Olympic Committee and SEISA in 2016 included cooperation in athlete development and support for Bhutan’s efforts towards the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. The Bhutan Paralympic Committee was established in 2017, marking an important step in the development of organised para-sport in the country.
In 2019, Miyazawa-san was appointed Honorary Advisor to the Bhutan Olympic Committee. By that time, the relationship between SEISA and Bhutan had developed over many years, and Miyazawa-san had become a familiar figure to athletes and officials who travelled between the two countries.
His passing in 2022 brought an end to his personal involvement, but the relationship did not end with him. The Bhutan Olympic Committee continues to work with SEISA Group and the Foundation for Global Children, with cooperation continuing in areas including athlete development, education and para-sport. Recent support has included sports wheelchairs for the Bhutan Paralympic Committee, provided through the continuing relationship with SEISA and FGC in remembrance of Miyazawa-san.
For the BOC, the continuation of this partnership is important because it reflects the relationships that have been built over many years. As Team Bhutan now travels to Japan for Aichi-Nagoya 2026, those years of connection are very much part of the present. Some of our athletes will be visiting Japan for the first time. Others will recognise the training grounds, the schools, the streets and the people who have been part of their earlier sporting journeys. There will be familiar faces and new ones, and there will be another group of Bhutanese athletes taking their place on the Asian Games stage.
Miyazawa-san will not be there to meet them. For those who knew him, that absence will be noticed. The athletes who trained in Japan with his support will remember the visits, conversations and encouragement. Those who studied through the SEISA programme will remember the years they spent away from home. And those who have followed the partnership from Bhutan will remember how consistently he made time for the athletes.
These are personal memories, and they are an important part of the history between Bhutan and SEISA.
Sporting partnerships are often described through agreements, programmes and results. Those things matter, but the relationship between Bhutan and SEISA was also built through ordinary moments: an athlete being welcomed after arriving in Japan, a visit during training, a conversation before a competition, a student finding help when the language became difficult, or a young person simply knowing that someone was there to support them.
Those moments stay with people. The athletes who came through the programme have since gone on to represent Bhutan at regional, continental and Olympic competitions. Some have returned home with experience that they now share with younger athletes. Others have continued to build their careers while remaining connected to the sporting relationship between Bhutan and Japan.
This is why the Bhutan Olympic Committee remembers Miyazawa-san with such gratitude. His work with Bhutan was sustained over many years, and its impact can be seen in the people who benefited from the opportunities he helped provide. As we travel to Aichi-Nagoya, we also acknowledge the many people in Japan who have continued that work: the teachers, coaches, school staff, volunteers, officials and friends who have welcomed Bhutanese athletes and students over the years.
The BOC extends its sincere appreciation to SEISA Group and the Foundation for Global Children for continuing the partnership and for carrying forward the spirit of cooperation that Miyazawa-san established. For Bhutan, this relationship has created opportunities for young athletes to study, train and compete, while building friendships that have lasted well beyond their time in Japan.
And perhaps that is the part we will remember most as Team Bhutan returns. Miyazawa-san believed in giving young people an opportunity and then giving them the support to make something of it. Many of the athletes who received that opportunity have already written their own chapters in Bhutan’s sporting history.
There will be others to come. As the Bhutanese flag is raised in Japan and our athletes step forward to compete at Aichi-Nagoya 2026, we will remember the generations who travelled this road before them, and the people who helped them along the way. Among those people will always be Yasuo Miyazawa-san.
His name is part of the story of Bhutanese sport in Japan, but it is the memories of the athletes he supported that keep that story alive. For the Bhutan Olympic Committee, and for the many athletes whose lives were touched by his kindness, Miyazawa-san remains a friend we will always remember.
Bhutan will remember his friendship. Bhutan will remember his generosity. And Bhutan will remain grateful for everything he did for our young people and for sport.