An interview with a Shimanean: Tomio Daigen

 Interview by Rose Tanasugarn

Tomio Daigen is a man with a mission. His dream? To produce a worldclass boxer from Shimane. In May 2004 he established Ioka Gym in Gotsu, but boxing titles were not his main motivation for doing so. Rather, he sees the gym as a way to help Shimane’s troubled youth find their way back to a positive future.

Left to Right: 1996-2000 WBA Champion Pichit Siriwat with his WBA belt, Tomio Daigen, and Chief Trainer Luis Albela Vargas De Leon.

How did you get the idea to open a gym in Shimane?
I’ve been a guidance counselor in Shimane for about 25 years now. It was about 8 years ago that there was a dramatic rise in the number of students that stopped attending school and had problems communicating with others, even their own family members. Some became so-called “shut-ins”(hikikomori). After unsuccessfully trying other counseling methods, parents would often consult me.

Having done martial arts in my youth, I feel that exercise is an important way to relieve stress, and a better way for young people to spend their free time. My cousin happened to be an old acquaintance of Hiroki Ioka (1987 WBA Strawweight Champion, 1992 WBA Light Flyweight Champion), so after some discussions and planning, we established Ioka Gym in Gotsu.

It’s wonderful that there are no gym training fees for school-aged kids.
Well, from the start, I had hoped to provide a productive outlet for troubled teens. Many of them come from disadvantaged homes, but money should not be the reason that they cannot come here and build some selfesteem. We have boys taking the train from as far away as Matsue every weekend. Even transportation costs can be a challenge for some of the parents, so I try to chip in and pay for one trip a month.

The point is, the boys have learned a lot of good things from their training. They know what it feels like to be punched and how much it can hurt, so in turn, they have stopped being violent to those around them. Some have even reached the point where they have developed their social skills and returned to school.

With former world champion boxers at Ioka Gym, things look good for your dream coming true. Can you tell us a little bit about the staff and boxers that train at the gym?
In 1987, Hiroki Ioka became Japan’s youngest world champion at 18 1/2 years of age. While Hiroki spends most of his time in Osaka, our chief trainers in Gotsu are Pichit Siriwat from Thailand and Luis Albela Vargas De Leon of Panama. We also have a special trainer, Keiji Yamaguchi from Hakodate, Hokkaido. Pichit was WBA Light Flyweight champion from 1996-2000. Luis was himself a pro-boxer whose career was cut short by an eye injury, but he has trained many world champion boxers from Thailand. He can even speak Thai since he lived there for 11 years. Keiji is a former WBA Light Flyweight champion as well. They are all great role models for our young boxers. In fact, three boys from Shimane will be going for professional qualification tests in July. Once they are certified, they can officially start their boxing careers. Currently we have 80 boys training in Gotsu, mainly from 5th grade elementary students through high school, but we have a few 2nd and 3rd grade elementary boys too.

What word would you choose to describe Shimane?
I think the word inaka (countryside) is appropriate, but not in the disparaging sense. People from inaka often have an inferiority complex when meeting people from the urban parts of Japan; part of the reason I established a branch of Ioka Gym in Gotsu is precisely because I want to show that wonderful things can happen even in remote rural places like Shimane. I want our young boxers to hold their heads up high and be proud of their countryside roots. People are often surprised to hear there is a branch of Ioka Gym outside of Osaka, but wouldn't it be fantastic someday to have a boxing world champion from Shimane?

Ioka Gym in Shimane is located on Route 9 in Gotsu near Palace Wako hotel. The gym is closed on Tuesdays. For more information about fitness training or boxing classes, call
0855-52-2055

or visit
http://www.pool.co.jp/boxing
(In Japanese only).