I left Japan at twelve. In May 2027 I go back — on the national team of the country that raised me.

I'm a two-time Canadian national kendo champion, and I've been selected to the men's Team Canada roster for the 20th World Kendo Championships, held in Tokyo from 27–30 May 2027. It's the first time the championships have returned to Japan since 2015, and it's the biggest tournament I will ever compete in.

I'm not flying in for the tournament. I'm going five weeks early, on my own, to train with the Kagawa and Osaka prefectural police squads — full-time kendo professionals, the deepest talent pool the sport has. Our team has already trained with the Osaka and Oita police; you can see it in the photos above. But those were afternoons. I want weeks of it: enough mornings of being taken apart by people better than me that something actually changes before I step onto the floor in Tokyo.

Kendo has no prize money, no sponsors and no salaries. Every athlete on Team Canada pays their own way. Our coaches are volunteers. Our athletes are amateurs with full-time jobs or degrees to finish. Six weeks in Japan will cost me about $7,500 out of pocket. This is me asking for help with that.

Ten years in Alberta, then I moved provinces for it

I started kendo as a kid in Japan, before I had any idea it would follow me across an ocean. My family moved to Canada when I was twelve, and I spent the next decade training in Alberta — six years at Edmonton Kendo Club, then four at Sturgeon Kendo Club. Every practice, every tournament, every long drive to a shiai in the next province over.

Alberta gave me my foundation. I won my first Canadian national title there in 2023, and stood on the floor in Milan the year after for the 19th World Championships — my first time wearing CANADA on my belt.

Then I moved to Vancouver, in 2025. Not for a job, not for school — for kendo. A national title is not the same as being ready for the world, and there's a ceiling on how far you can push when the nearest people at your level are a flight away. I wanted to train somewhere I'd get beaten often enough that I'd have to change. I won the title again in 2026.

Milan showed me exactly how wide the gap is. I'm not going to Tokyo to find out again.

Where the money goes

$3,200 — Lodging during the training weeks: roughly 34 nights around Kagawa and Osaka

$2,200 — Tournament flights: getting to shiai across Canada through the season before I fly out

$1,400 — Return airfare, Vancouver to Japan: out late April, home early June

$700 — Travel inside Japan: Takamatsu, Osaka and Tokyo, plus six weeks of daily transit to and from keiko

Total: $7,500 CAD

Almost every dollar buys mat time — nights near the dojos and the trains that get me there. Food, equipment and everything else for six weeks I'm covering myself. If we raise past the goal, the surplus goes to giving back to the kendo community.

What you'll get

Updates from the police dojos in Kagawa and Osaka while I'm there, and a full write-up from Tokyo — win or lose, with the matches broken down honestly.

The ask

If you've trained with me, been coached by me, or just want to see someone from Vancouver go do this — twenty dollars matters. So does sharing this with one person who might care. And if you can't give, come find me at the dojo instead. That's worth more to me than the plane ticket.

ありがとうございます。

— Shion Miyashita