Kenyan-born Mayaka has made it big in Japan

Last year, an interesting incident was reported in Tokyo when, on a morning jog, a Kenyan athlete lost his way in the city’s concrete jungle and ended up taking refuge at a local police station awaiting help.

And since he didn’t speak Japanese and the local police didn’t know any English either, efforts to trace the athlete’s residence were quite complicated.

But when the athlete mentioned the name Stephen Mayaka, the Tokyo police officers finally got the clue they needed to help him out of his predicament.

A call to Mayaka sorted out the issue and the athlete’s ordeal finally ended as he found his way back to his apartment, seven hours after he had set out on what he had expected to be a routine, incident-free, 30-minute morning jog.

Similar buildings

“In Tokyo, most of the buildings and streets look very much alike and for a visitor who doesn’t understand Japanese, getting lost is quite easy. This was the case with this unfortunate athlete,” Mayaka said in a recent interview with Lifestyle.

“Fortunately, the police in Tokyo knew me and had my number so they called me to pick up the athlete,” he explained.

Mayaka is a household name in Japan, being the first foreign athletics coach in this Asian nation that adores marathon running.

Born in Kisii and now holding a Japanese passport, Mayaka has been behind the success of many young Kenyan athletes in Japan and has recently been associated with the rise of Kenya’s Olympic marathon champion, Samuel Kamau Wanjiru.

He is currently also head track and field coach at the Sozo Gakuen University besides being the personal trainer and manager of many Kenyan and Japanese runners.
Kenyan athlete

Mayaka first landed in Japan as a Kenyan athlete on December 24, 1990, and immediately made an impact, winning a number of top road races and marathons, quickly becoming a household name in his new abode.

As a fresh-faced student at Kisii’s Kiomiti Secondary School, he would have hardly imagined travelling to Japan, let alone taking up Japanese citizenship and becoming a sports celebrity.

Some of his triumphs, as a member of the Yamanashi Gakuin University in Yamanashi Prefecture (province), came in the Japan National Championships, the Hakone Ekiden the All Japan Inter-University Championships (in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres races) and thrice in the Sapporo International Marathon.

He subsequently represented Kenya at three editions of the World University Games in New York, Sicily and Fukuoka, winning silver medals in the latter two.

He had personal best times of 13 minutes, 28.45 seconds in the 5,000m, 28:00.25 (10,000m) and 61 minutes and 15 seconds in the half marathon.

The 36-year-old Mayaka also won the prestigious Sapporo Half Marathon from 1995 to 1997, then running for various top clubs like the Team Daiei and Hitachi Cable.

Mayaka eventually settled down with a Japanese girl, Sachiyo, and the couple finally tied the knot in 1998 with Sachiyo taking up the Kisii names, Moraa Mayaka. The couple has a daughter, Yuri Jerusha Mayaka, and son, Chui Hiromu Mayaka.

“Both children take up the names of my parents who are both deceased,” Mayaka says.

“Sachiyo is basically a housewife but sometimes she coaches some of my athletes in Japan when I’m out of the country. She used to be a marathon runner and represented Japan at the 1995 World Athletics Championships in Sweden and she is also an assistant coach of the Japan women’s athletics team.

“I took up my Japanese citizenship in 2005 because of my family and also because the future, as regards my career, looked brighter in Japan. After all, I had lived in Japan for a long time and knew a great deal about Japanese life and culture.”

Mayaka is among the pioneers in the long list of top Kenyan runners who took up jobs in Japan during their running careers.

The list includes distance running greats, the late Joseph Otwori, Eric Wainaina, Thomas Osano, Douglas Wakiihuri and Daniel Njenga with Burundi’s Aloys Nizigama the other East African who made an impact in Tokyo.

Otwori, like Mayaka, an alumnus of the Yamanashi Gakuin University, was Kenya’s first university student runner in Japan.

He was killed in a road accident three years ago near Kericho while back home on holiday, handing over the mantle of mentor of Kenyan runners in Japan to Mayaka. The athletics set-up in Japan is quite different from other parts of the world.

Rather than run all over and survive purely on prize money and kitting contracts, the Kenyan athletes based in this Asian nation register with the top companies, many of which have sports clubs, like motor companies Toyota, Honda, Suzuki or electronics firms including Hitachi, Fuji and Panasonic.

Popular sport

Marathon running is among the most popular sports with the traditional Ekiden (relay marathon) the most lucrative. Mayaka was quick in learning Japanese, which is one of the conditions one has to meet before taking up athletics scholarships in the country.

“I learnt Japanese at a language school in Tokyo after finishing my fourth form at the Kiomiti Secondary School and I also enrolled at Yamanashi High School and the Yamanashi Gakuin University.”

Mayaka’s trip to Japan was facilitated by Shem Omasire, then a teacher at Kisii’s Cardinal Otunga High School and who had great contacts in Japan.

“Former Kenyan Olympic gold medallist, Robert Ouko, Omasire and Misiocha Miyigo, who was the headmaster at Kiomiti, helped me a great deal in building my career.

After a successful running career, Mayaka took up coaching in 2006 and became an athletes’ manager registered by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) the following year.

“I have several Kenyan runners in my stable, including distance runners Philes Ongori and Job Mogusu, who are ranked in the top 30 on the world list by the IAAF, and many others outside the top 30.

Mayaka has helped several top Kenyan athletes earn track scholarships and enrol for major Japanese athletics clubs, among them former national cross country champion Gideon Ngatuny and world junior 3,000 metres steeplechase champions Jonathan Muya and Christine Kambua Muyanga, Jefferson Siekei, Jelia Tinega and Winfrida Mochache.

Besides being an athletics coach and manager, Mayaka mentors most of the Kenyan runners launching their careers in Japan, including the Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru.

“Wanjiru has been a great friend from the time he landed in Japan,” said Mayaka who was born in Nyangiti sub-location of Gucha district and who schooled at the Nyagesa Primary School before joining Kiomiti Secondary School.

Investment and training

“I used to race with him in the same club and I have since been advising him on various issues that he is familiar with in Japan like investment and training.

“He spends time in my house sometimes and his coach in Japan – Katsushi Fuchiki - was also my college mate at the Yamanashi Gakuin University.

“Before the Beijing Olympics, I visited Mayaka at Ngong to see how he was preparing for the Games, and I also travelled to Beijing where we planned the race tactics with his coach on the day before he won the gold medal. We are great friends and we’re currently planning to support several sports projects in Kenya.”

Mayaka is seen as the leader of the Kenyan running community in Japan, helping the more than 100 athletes cope with life in the country.

He also offers translation and other assistance to visiting Kenyan trade delegations and the Kenyan embassy in Tokyo headed by ambassador Dennis Awori. He has also been involved in organising the “Kenya Night” in Japan each year.

“I’m involved in various activities in Japan, other than sports, like promoting Kenyan tourism. On Many weekends I get invitations to schools and festivals to give talks on Kenyan runners, culture and wildlife.

“Sometimes I’m invited to television stations to give commentary on athletics events and also talk about various issues regarding Kenya.”

Japanese food and culture don’t seem to bother the former athlete who is quite comfortable using the chop sticks to devour his favourite dish, sushi (raw fish) and sea food.

“When I’m relaxed, I enjoy Japanese beer, like Sapporo, Asahi and Kirin, very much. I also love the traditional brew they call sochu.

“The Japanese people are very kind and generous, the buildings and streets are always clean and their cars and technological advancement fascinates me a lot,” says Mayaka who runs a part-time car export business in Tokyo.

“Life in Japan is very expensive but what impresses me most is that it’s a very safe country with very few criminals. You can leave your car for many days unattended, without locking it, which is quite different from the case in Kenya and many other countries.”

“I wish one day Kenya develops to the level of Japan. I want to use my contacts in Japan to help the poor children who want to go to school in Kenya to achieve their dreams to be doctors, teachers, etc, and help educate others in their villages.

“I might be a Japanese citizen now, but my heart is always in Kenya and I normally make up to three visits in a year to Kenya just to catch up and develop my business interests,” he adds.

Life not easy

Life in Japan has not been all that smooth for Mayaka who has been called upon a few times to bail out errant Kenyan runners in Tokyo.

Three months ago, he helped negotiate with the Japanese authorities the release of two Kenyan runners who were held in custody after their immigration documents expired.

“My advice to Kenyans coming to study or settle in Japan is that they must learn the language and be familiar with the immigration laws and other regulations in the country to avoid such incidents.”

Strangely enough, despite his celebrity status in Japan, Mayaka moves around Kenya unnoticed.

Once, he was checking into a five-star hotel in Nairobi when staff at the front desk requested him to pave way for some foreigners who were in the queue.

“Since I was speaking Kiswahili, they asked me allow the other guests to check in ahead of me but when I removed my Japanese passport, they were shocked and apologised saying they didn’t know I was also a foreigner.”

Mayaka was then in Kenya with the Japanese team to the 2007 World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa.

Mayaka is scheduled to return to Kenya later this month to scout for more athletics talent and help various sports projects that he has started in the country.

“I will also visit the families of the Japan-based runners just to appraise them on the performances and general status of the runners besides just catching up on many other issues.”