Nike Celebrates Play Academy’s 5th Anniversary with Coach the Dream Summit in Tokyo

When you sit and think of Nike’s impact, you understand the expansiveness of their global reach. Yet, it’s not until you join Nike’s effort to see their initiatives through all the way in Japan, do you get to experience this in action in real time. MADE for the W had the privilege of joining the Nike team during the Coach the Dream Summit in Tokyo, where it aligned to celebrate Play Academy’s 5th Anniversary.

In celebration of the 5th anniversary of Play Academy with Naomi Osaka and to help change the sport environment and experience for girls, Nike and Laureus Sport for Good are launching a new, research-backed coaching guide designed specifically for coaches in Japan, marking the brand’s latest commitment to removing barriers to play and sport for girls. The guide aims to provide coaches with the skills and knowledge to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for girls in sport by shifting the social and cultural mindset around the critical role movement plays in girls’ development and mental health. The guide has already received support from the Yomiuri Giants professional baseball team, Japan Basketball Association and other local sports organizations and institutes.

“We feel the urge to change the environment around girls in sport, starting with baseball. The toolkit will help spread the awareness of gender-biased barriers girls face and provide a safe and secure environment for all girls in sport. Overall, we believe that this will contribute to the future of youth sport in Japan.” – Toru Kunimatsu

To that end, Nike has recently convened Coach the Dream summits in Tokyo, Paris and at its World Headquarters in Oregon — gathering partners, coaching experts and community leaders to power the future of youth sport and the next chapter of inclusive youth sport coaching. The Tokyo event, hosted in partnership with Laureus Sport for Good from October 16-20, was the largest of its kind ever held in Japan. Coach trainers from the Center for Healing & Justice Through Sport trained 50 local sport leaders on the new coaching guide and trauma-informed coaching practices to provide girls in Japan greater access to play and sport experiences that are healing-centered and inclusive.

The Coach the Dream summit highlighted many aspects of why it’s so important to even the playing field, access, and resources for young girls in sport, especially in Japan. A few points I took away were vital. On the panel that gave us a closer look at barriers to sports for girls in Japan, it showed how critical it is to understand each other as a player and a coach, and to bridge the gap in not generalizing women athletes because of preconceived bias. Kyoko Raita, PhD. a professor at the School of Health and Sports Sciences at Chukyo University shared that ,”young girls don’t want to get laughed at, criticized, embarrassed, or be a failure, so they avoid sports. We have to change the mindset to change the result.” She further added, “Sports changes who we are at the cellular level, it changes our brains in a way that helps us recover from overwhelming challenges and significant adversity and trauma.”

Toru Onzuka, Former Head Coach of Japan Women’s National Basketball Team, stated that “as a coach, it’s not about forcing them to do anything, but creating an environment that they want to do, they know what to do, and confident in how to do it. As a coach, it is on me to prepare the environment, and expand opportunities for sports.”

The Coach the Dream summits mirror Nike’s work with more than 100 global organizations to give kids the opportunity to access and benefit from play and sport. One of those organizations is Play Academy with Naomi Osaka, which launched in Tokyo five years ago and has since expanded to Los Angeles, Haiti and Osaka, Japan.

So where better to be than the place in which the Play Academy ultimately began? I had the privilege of asking Naomi Osaka how pivotal has it been to have planted roots for Play Academy in Japan where she picked up her first racket, and it also simultaneously being where Nike is helping expand access to sport for young girls?

Naomi answered with gratitude gleaming in her eyes, “It definitely feels full circle to me. I have memories of me playing tennis in Japan when I was a little girl, so just to be able to provide that for other young kids, no matter what sport they’re playing, is something that means a lot to me. To have Nike, such a big company, it means a lot to have them backing this. I hope that we can continue to reach more girls and to show everyone sports and movement is something that can make a lot of people happy.” Naomi becoming a mother of a girl feels so parallel, as Play Academy pushes her purpose forward in helping other young girls as well.

We were privileged enough to spend the day with Naomi and Play Academy, hosted at The British School in Tokyo, where she was able to connect with young girls through team building, engaging in play, and partnering in activities – which was absolutely touching to see. The aim is to change girls’ lives through play and sport, empowering them with life-long benefits, to successfully close the sports equity gap.

“Play Academy aims to change girls’ lives through play and sport, and we can’t do that without great coaches,” Osaka says. “It’s been a joy to work alongside Nike to inspire the next generation to reach their potential through the power of movement.” – Naomi Osaka

With only one in five kids globally getting the physical activity they need to thrive, and unique cultural barriers keeping girls on the sidelines, the brand is dedicated to helping coaches inspire the next generation to get, and stay, involved in sport. This work is especially important in Japan, which ranks 118th out of 146 countries (last among advanced economies) when it comes to gender parity, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2024.

“Japan holds a special place in Nike’s history, with a relationship spanning more than 50 years. In that time, we have seen tremendous progress for women in sport, but we know girls continue to face barriers to participation,” says Vanessa Garcia-Brito, VP, Chief Impact Officer, NIKE, Inc. “That’s why we’ve partnered with Laureus Sport for Good to spark even greater change and ensure all youth, especially girls, feel welcomed and supported.”

I also had the honor of being able to sit down with Vanessa Garcia-Brito, VP, Chief Impact Officer of Nike, in Tokyo, to have an amazing Q&A. As she was in attendance for the Coach the Dream Summit, it seemed like the perfect chance to be able to walk through her journey thus far.

MFTW: As a child of immigrants, do you feel your people-first and purpose-driven approach in leadership and advocating for human rights stemmed from your upbringing and values?

VGB: Growing up as the daughter of immigrants, three things that really stick out to me from my childhood are love, community, and freedom. I grew up from very humble beginnings, we did not have a lot. I grew up in a space maybe half the size of this room. When you don’t have a lot of things, you realize what an abundance of love you have, because what that allows, that entire space fills up with love. I was loved. My home and life were filled with love. Many of my memories involved the community that my mother built around us. Our parents work multiple jobs, live in unsafe areas, and the people that really show up for you. Our space was teeny tiny, but it was filled with who my mother considered, all her other children. If you were in the neighborhood and you knew us, you were welcome, at any time, all the time. She fought so hard so we would have options, so freedom is the opportunity to make choices for yourself. To be an attorney, to be a storyteller, to be anything in between, but to have that freedom to choose is so important.

MFTW: How have you been able to incorporate your international/IP law background as well as the power of storytelling in sport into your current role at Nike?

VGB: One of the things we learn as lawyers is to be zealous advocates. Zealous advocate for the people that you are representing and the issues at hand. That served me so well in my entire career, no matter what I’m doing. Honestly, I’ve been doing the same thing no matter what job I’ve been in – championing and advocating for girls, women and all people of different backgrounds to have a voice and to have a platform. As storytellers, that’s what we do. That’s what you’re doing with MADE for the W, you creating a platform where voices can be heard and that’s so powerful because not everyone has that opportunity. That’s what you do, you create an opportunity for stories other may never ever hear, for those to be heard is phenomenal.

MFTW: Describe how pivotal it has been leading Partnerships & Strategic Communications for the Girl Effect and creating Nike’s first-ever Purpose Communications team?

VGB: It’s been a real privilege and really an honor. I can’t believe that I’ve had that opportunity. That work has taught me a lot of things. Girl Effect specifically was a life changing experience. I had the opportunity to go out, to speak to the most hardest to reach girls in the world. What that taught me is that hope, opportunity, and representation are as life changing as the most foundational means. We need food, security, and safety AND hopes, dreams, and aspirations. That was something I was able to pull forward through Purpose Communications as well. I’m super lucky because look, Nike has had purpose since the minute it was created. Our founder was very intentional. What the Purpose Communications role allowed us to do was harness all of that purpose and passion of thousands and thousands of employees and make it advocating.

MFTW: It’s only right I have to ask, in true MADE for the W fashion, what’s your favorite Nike silhouette to wear that is a go-to for you?

VGB: So I’ve got two! I’ve got Air Force ones are my favorite. I’m a New Yorker. A lot of people claim Air Force Ones, but if they don’t say New York, I don’t know what does. And I’m a runner so I’m a Pegasus girl, so when I go running, Pegasus is my go-to shoe. The Pegasus has never failed me, they’re my tried and true.

And as we came to an end of an amazing conversation, we embraced. And in summation, that is what the time with Nike in Tokyo felt like: a warm hug. One that was encompassed in elevation, unity, and strength of young girls and women, in sports, and in life. To take up space and make movements, on and off the courts and fields. To bridge the gap between young boys and girls, to show them it’s all possible. In Vanessa’s own words, “if we do sport in the right way, it heals. It’s time for us to start supporting the support system. Sports equity is something we can achieve. We can close the gap.” It’s alas, time.