About ten days ago, the Japanese people I met during my business trip to Tokyo were only talking about the Koshien finals. The highlights I saw when I returned to my hotel room were like a drama in itself, where ultra-special commentators analyzed the game with a title called 'National High School Baseball Championship' that was almost embarrassing. Koshien seemed like a festival of the Japanese people on its own.

The reason Korean media covered the neighboring country's high school baseball finals extensively is that the winning team, Kyoto International High School, is a school founded by Zainichi Koreans. There is a beautiful tradition at Koshien where, after each game, the winning team stands in formation while their school song is played, and coincidentally, the school song of Kyoto International High School has Korean lyrics, "Across the East Sea, to the land of Yamato…" which creates the illusion that a Korean high school team has won. This school song is the reason Japanese high school baseball has been highlighted in Korea.

In fact, it's not only surprising that it is the school song. The most touching story is how such a small school with 160 students could have the skills to rank at the top level in a tournament with 3,715 participating teams. The history of struggling to maintain Korean identity in Japan is also very moving. Moreover, a real Koshien victory! The Japanese professors I met during my trip congratulated me and asked for a handshake, saying that this victory is a miraculous event even in Japanese society.

It would be understandable if my shoulders raised a bit, but I couldn't do that. This was because the reality of our high school came to mind. In this summer's Koshien tournament, only 49 schools participated after fierce qualifiers involving a total of 3,715 teams from 47 regions. The scale is enormous. In contrast, around 100 high school baseball teams are active in Korea, which is 37 times smaller than Japan. Even considering the population difference, the scale is about 15 times smaller. The situation is similar in football.

Even more surprising is the ratio of high schools with sports teams. According to 2021 statistics, there are 3,962 high school football teams in Japan (we have 190). With 4,887 high schools in Japan, about 80% of them have football teams, and 76% have baseball teams. In contrast, in Korea, only 8% have football teams and just 4% have baseball teams. This is the sports gap between high school teams in Korea and Japan. In other words, team sports in our high school are not a lifestyle or culture, but merely their own league.

Back to Koshien. Since only the winning team among so many local high school teams reaches the Koshien finals, during August, when the summer Koshien finals are held, everyone becomes cheerleaders for their regional community. In fact, this time, the enthusiastic support of students and parents from neighboring schools in Kyoto to cheer for Kyoto International High School was frequently captured by cameras. It was no longer just their league; it became a 'our' festival. The moment it becomes a festival, the outcome of the game becomes a bonus.

Team sports, literally, are a field where one experiences what a team is. Being part of a big or small team during adolescence holds more significance than just developing one’s physical abilities. It is not just an opportunity to develop social skills like cooperation and consideration, but also a field of emotional regulation, experiencing joy and sorrow from victory and defeat, comfort and frustration from encouragement and criticism, and self-esteem and inferiority from doing well or poorly. Moreover, it is a practice ground for empathy, able to reflect on not just one's own team members but also the opposing team.

Numerous studies have shown that a child who does not experience ‘play’ in childhood suffers from serious emotional issues as an adult. This is because play is an act of experiencing and regulating the ups and downs of emotions. Adolescence is a time when one is physically vigorous, hormonally dynamic, and cognitively flexible. Are we adults, who have decided to eliminate team sports that do not help with exams, allowing adolescents to run like racehorses alone during this period, in our right minds? Considering that continuous group physical activities enhance cognitive abilities and learning, relieve stress, and function as antidepressants, such judgments by adults are not only serious errors but could also be a grave crime that misleads our children.

Professor Ratey of Harvard Medical School, author of 'A User's Guide to the Brain,' emphasizes that high school zero-period physical education classes significantly aid in improving students' learning capabilities and brain structure. He argues that exercise benefits not just the body but also the brain. There is an anecdote about a principal of a certain private high school in Korea who deeply resonated with this fact and tried to prioritize exercise in the school's educational philosophy but soon gave up due to extreme opposition from parents. It is very surreal that even parents who have realized how important exercise is in life are opposing such endeavors.