Embassy of Japan in the UK

The month of November will certainly be a very special one for rugby fans both in Japan and the UK. For one thing, the Japanese national team will be touring the UK and will play some important test matches in preparation for the Rugby World Cup to be held throughout England 2015. For that matter, the World Cup after that in 2019 will be held in Japan. Also, it is a time to remember a diplomat who worked hard in bringing our two countries together, most notably through rugby.

It was ten years ago on 29 November 2003 that Mr Katsuhiko Oku, Director of the JICC at our Embassy back then, was tragically shot and killed on duty in Iraq. In addition to his work in London to promote cultural and sports exchanges between Japan and the UK, he had been on a temporary mission to help Japanese efforts toward post-war reconstruction in Iraq.

Since then, every year at this time, Mr Oku’s friends and teammates from the University of Oxford, where he spent his younger days studying as a diplomatic trainee and was the first-ever Japanese to play for the Blues rugby fifteen, gather to host the “Oku Memorial Trophy Rugby Tournament”. On this occasion, the Kew Occasionals RFC (which includes many Oxbridge alumni) and London Japanese RFC (consisting of Japanese rugby-lovers in London) join other teams to play rugby in memory of Mr Oku.

Katsuhiko Oku participating in the Embassy's Club Taishikan

Mr Reg Clark, Mr Oku’s long time friend and the founder of the memorial tournament, had this to share with us about the memory of his friend and what this event has meant to him.

“It means a great deal to me personally to honour the memory and celebrate the life of one of my closest friends, and to do so in a way that has very real significance in the context of Katsu’s life. He had a lifelong passion for rugby, starting as a player of distinction at Itami High School in Hyogo Prefecture, and at Waseda and Oxford Universities. Later, as a longstanding member of the international committee of the JRFU, he worked tirelessly to attract the Rugby World Cup to Japan and would have been so proud when that goal was finally achieved for the 2019 tournament. With the support of his widow Emiko and his children, I have in turn been proud, together with my friends and colleagues at London Japanese RFC, Oxford University RFC, Hertford College, Vincent’s Club and the Kew Occasionals, all which played a part in Katsu’s rugby life, to organise an annual Oku Memorial rugby tournament since 2005.

"In the first years this was inevitably an event tinged with huge sadness and raw emotion, but as time has gone by, we have consciously tried to make it above all a happy celebration of his life, as we his friends all instinctively know that is what he would have wanted. On this 10th anniversary of his tragic death, no doubt sadness and raw emotion will feature once more, but so will our determination to remember Katsu Oku as we knew and loved him - an irrepressibly positive, optimistic and happy man - certainly one of the finest people it has ever been my honour to have known."

This year, the 9th Oku Memorial Trophy Rugby Tournament will be held at Iffley Road Ground at the University of Oxford on Saturday 7 December.

Admission is free, and all our friends and fans of rugby are welcome to join and watch some exciting matches and pay tribute to the man who worked hard for Japan-UK cooperation and for the future of Iraq. A small reception will follow the matches.