Osaka establishes motorsport promotion council within F1 race bid

The Japanese city of Osaka has formed a new motorsport promotion council to boost its bid to get a future Formula 1 race hosting slot.

Back in January, Osaka officials made it public that the city intends to attract F1 as part of a wider attempt to change its economic outlook and become an international tourism location.

The Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau has created a motorsport promotion council, with nine council members onboard to discuss the significance of attracting motorsport to the city, as well as the revitalisation of various industries and the economic ripple effect gaining a race slot could have.

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They will also work on how to promote resident understanding of the potential race and explain how it can contribute to a safe and secure mobility society.

"Since we announced in January this year that we would try to attract the F1 Grand Prix, we have received many opinions from various stakeholders and fans," said Hiroshi Mizohata, president of the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau.

"In Japan, motorsport tends to be viewed as a race for only a few enthusiasts, but diversity is progressing and it has become a sport that everyone can enjoy.

"It also has the character of being a testing ground for environmentally friendly mobility such as carbon neutral."

The nine council members are Mitsuru Sawada (tourism and urban development expert), Masahiko Kondo, Juichi Wakisaka and Tomoyuki Ogawa (motorsport experts, with the latter two a former Super GT driver and Honda Super Class rider respectively), Kenichi Tanaka (motorsport media expert), Kazuto Sawai (entertainment expert), Seizo Imamura (local stakeholder expert), Tomo Igata (diversity expert), Takayuki Furuta (academics expert) and Mizohata is chairman of this council, and Yoshikazu Tanaka (Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau Secretary-General, MICE Policy Director, Expo and IR Promotion Director) will have charge of Secretary-General of this council.

Mizohata is also convinced that a successful F1 driver – with Yuki Tsunoda currently the only Japanese driver, racing for the RB squad – would increase interest in the discipline in the country, which is nevertheless a major player in the automotive industry.

"I am convinced that motorsports will be revitalised [in Japan] if motorsport athletes, like Shohei Ohtani in baseball, come into the spotlight as the object of children's dreams and hopes in Japan, just as they do in Europe and other countries overseas," said Mizohata.

Osaka overview

Photo by: Jon Noble

"I would like to have thorough discussions with experts so that we can contribute to the correct understanding and development of motorsports."

Japanese F1 interest would have to increase significantly if Osaka hopes to gain a race this decade, following Suzuka's new deal to host its round being announced as running until the end of 2029 back in February.

The Osaka authorities have previously stated they wish for their proposed race to run alongside the Suzuka round – with a city street track, new permanent venue or a hybrid-style format around the Osaka Expo site being built on Yumeshima Island all mooted as race locations – but F1 is unlikely to want two races so close to each other.

Osaka and Suzuka are just 80 miles apart and, in any case, the calendar is already massively congested at 24 rounds.

This means most new races such as Madrid will come at the expense of existing rounds, as is expected to happen in Spain with Barcelona dropping off the schedule after 2025.

However, that is yet to be officially confirmed and in Osaka's case, the city has long been clear its intentions to secure an F1 race are for the long-term.