Japan’s governing body for keirin is preparing a modest trial of men’s racing under international rules, hoping to make the sport more accessible to new audiences.
Men’s racing in Japan is based on collaboration in ‘lines’: riders from the same region work together to manage the race. In his book War On Wheels, Justin McCurry describes it as ‘both glaringly simple and infuriatingly complex… It is as indispensable to Japanese keirin as the riders and their bicycles.’
But now, in a bid to deliver racing which will be easier for novices to follow, the JKA is planning a series of six events following international rules, without line-based collaboration and the physical contact which often ensues.
These events will be at F1 and F2 levels, the lowest levels of the keirin pyramid; and they will be part of late-night ‘midnight keirin’ events, which are usually held without spectators. The first trial will be in mid-April, the last in early June.
The series will be known as KEIRIN ADVANCE: announcing the plans last year, after the Olympics but before Japan’s historic success at the Track World Championships, the JKA said the name was intended to ‘show that we will move forward as a new KEIRIN’.
Some have voiced concerns that the racing will lack the cherished nuances of traditional line-based competition, becoming a simple test of who is fastest.
But others hope it can help being new audiences to keirin, not just domestically but also internationally – offering an easier way for overseas riders to participate, and overseas fans to engage in the Japanese sport.
Japan’s Girls Keirin has followed international rules since its revival in 2012. The women also race on more modern carbon-fibre bikes, often with disc wheels – but it seems that these KEIRIN ADVANCE races will not depart from the traditional vintage machines of normal men’s racing.
A previous initiative to internationalise the sport, KEIRIN EVOLUTION saw a series of races organised between 2014 and 2019, with success for invited overseas riders like Shane Perkins, Joe Truman, Theo Bos and Matthew Glaetzer.
