Dear Branch Chiefs and Contacts

As always, I�m very grateful for your support to our organization.

On April 26th, was the 15th anniversary of Sosai Masutatsu Oyama�s death. I hope, and I am sure that all of you spent some time thinking of Sosai that day. I myself visited Sosai�s grave at the Gokokuji Temple, and when I arrived the grave was covered with flowers, which shows that many people had visited his grave. It was a beautiful day, with a clear blue sky, and a warm sunshine. Before this day, it had been raining for days and this was the first day after the rain, thus the air was fresh and dry.

When standing in front of Sosai�s grave, closing my eyes, it was almost as I could hear his voice, it felt as he was telling me something. I received a lot of power from Sosai at that moment, and I promised him that we will continue our work to make the WKO the largest Budo Organization, and also that we will make next month�s World Cup a great success.

As to the World Cup, there is only one and a half month left! I am very grateful to the Russian organization for their hard work in order to make this tournament successful. The tournament draw has been officially announced, so now there is only to count the days left for this big event. I wish all competitors good luck, and I hope that you all are proud to represent your country and region at this tournament.

Last month, after observing the European Championship, I had a chance to attend the EKO General Assembly and exchange opinions with many of you. During the meeting, I received some comments on the Tournament Draw from some Branch Chiefs. The WKO always make an official announcement of the tournament draw about two months prior to the tournament, both for the World Championship and the World Cup. The proposal received from this Branch Chief was to announce the draw only the day before the tournament. The reason for this proposal was that it would be fairer to the competitors to make an announcement the day before. I appreciate this proposal and I understand the thoughts behind it. However, the tournament draw has always been announced a couple of months prior to the actual tournament, even during Sosai�s days.

The competitor plays the main role in a tournament, and if they know who their opponent will be beforehand, it is easier for them to prepare themselves and bring themselves to a top condition. This means that the level of the fights and also the level of the competition in total will increase.Also, it is also very important to promote our tournament by announcing the draw beforehand. Tournaments and Competitions are very important in order to promote our organization. Tournaments are like a pipe between our organization and society. It is also important for us to have a large audience at our tournaments, and this can only be done by good promotion. If people don�t know anything about the competitors or about who will fight whom, they will easily lose their interest in our tournament. Further, if we would announce the draw just one day prior to this big event that could cause troubles which we do not have time for since we are so busy with other preparations the day before. It is very important to plan and prepare a tournament with a good time schedule, so that we can make the best possible presentation and promotion of our organization.

I am looking forward to meeting all of you in June, and also to hear your opinion not only in this matter, but also on other issues. It is very important that everybody gets the opportunity to express their opinion since this is OUR organization, and by cooperating with each other, we will create a stronger and larger organization.

OSU!

Kenji Midori
President
WKO