茨城県境町が、ピックルボールのプロ選手・嶋晴菜さんを地域おこし協力隊員に起用した。6月13日には町のスポーツ教室で体験会を開き、子どもから大人まで幅広い世代にラケットの握り方からサーブ、ラリーまでを手ほどきした。海外ツアーで戦う現役選手が地方の体育館で初心者を教える。単発のイベント講師ではなく、協力隊員として町に常駐し、継続的に指導する仕組みを整えた点が従来と異なる。プレーする側だけでなく、施設運営や行政の担当者にとっても参考になる動きである。
What Sakai did, in detail
According to the town's announcement, Haruna Shima has taken up her post as a "pickleball regional revitalization cooperator." She graduated from the College of Sport and Health Science at Ritsumeikan University and completed a master's in sport and health science at the same graduate school. On June 13 she held a trial class at the Sakai Town Gymnasium, providing technical support to each participant.
The town's sports class runs 15 sessions in total on Saturdays from 19:00 to 21:00 between June and October, covering beach-ball volleyball and badminton in addition to pickleball. The venue is the Sakai Town Gymnasium (540 Kamiobashi, Sakai, Sashima-gun, Ibaraki). The key to this effort is that rather than a pro being invited as a one-off event instructor, she settles into the town as a cooperator and teaches on an ongoing basis.
Haruna Shima's competitive record
Shima is an active tour player. According to the announcement, all of the following rankings are as of October 1, 2025.
- PPA Tour: 98th in singles, 151st in women's doubles, 144th in mixed doubles
- PPA Tour Asia: 10th in singles, 43rd in women's doubles
- 2025 World Cup: Team Japan
On the Asia-based tour she ranks near the top. She has also competed in international events such as the Australia Pickleball Open 2024 and the Asia Pickleball Games 2024, making her a player who knows the overseas competitive environment.
Why "a pro as a cooperator"?
It matters that this hire is not a one-off whim. Sakai is a municipality that has long pursued town-building centered on sport, and it has promoted all-weather sports park development using regional-revitalization grants and the passing on of Olympic legacy. Welcoming a former national-team-class athlete as a regional revitalization cooperator, and advancing both the sport's spread and residents' health at once -- that framework already existed, and pickleball was newly added to it.
The regional revitalization cooperator program is a system run by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and members' activity expenses are covered financially through special local grant tax. In other words, the town can secure specialist talent using a national program rather than relying on its own budget alone. For a sport like pickleball, where instructors are still scarce, this idea of "using the program to station instructors in rural areas" becomes a realistic way to break the bottleneck to wider adoption.
Comparing it with precedents in other sports
Before this, Sakai had already brought in a former national-team hockey player as a regional revitalization cooperator to run the venue and promote the sport. The method of welcoming top pros as cooperators was not newly created for pickleball; it is an application of a system the town has already been running in another sport. Precisely because it puts a new sport on a proven template, it can expect speed and continuity in getting started.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Program | Regional revitalization cooperator (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) |
| Hire | Active player with tour experience |
| Base of activity | Sakai Town Gymnasium (540 Kamiobashi, Sakai, Sashima-gun, Ibaraki) |
| Class period | Saturdays 19:00-21:00, June to October, 15 sessions in total |
| Scope | A wide range of generations, from children to adults |
What the town's comments and class design reveal
In the announcement, Shima positions pickleball as "a sport that nurtures connections between people," and says she wants to contribute to revitalizing the town by drawing on her experience in disaster-area support and preventive care. Her stance reflects an awareness of ties to the community, not just competitive strength.
The town's aims also show in the class design. Running 15 sessions from June to October assumes that people will keep coming and improve rather than ending after a single trial. Covering beach-ball volleyball and badminton in the same slot alongside pickleball is a setup that draws in not only those experienced in a particular sport but also residents with no exercise habit. Accepting everyone from children to adults in a single slot is likewise a design meant to gather participants across generations.
Implications for Japanese players and facility operators
What this shows people in Japan's pickleball world is that the leading role in spreading the sport is not necessarily limited to dedicated urban facilities. While there are private-led moves to increase dedicated courts, as with Picklr's Japan debut, the Sakai caseBuilding new dedicated facilitiesshows a different route. By combining an existing public gymnasium with a national talent program, you can launch instructor-led classes in rural areas while keeping initial investment low.
The key point for facility operators is how to design the securing of instructors. Courts can be prepared just by drawing lines, but people who can continuously teach beginners are not easy to gather. With Sakai's template of stationing a player using the cooperator program, facilities partnering with designated managers or governments can cover part of the personnel cost publicly. From the players' side too, a new entry point opens for people in rural areas who found it hard to receive top-player coaching.
Ripple effects for municipalities and governing bodies
From the municipal side, the strength of this model is how easy it is to replicate. The regional revitalization cooperator is a common system available to municipalities nationwide and is not tied to any particular sport. A municipality seeking a pickleball instructor can, under the system, apply Sakai's template directly to its own town. As noted, Sakai itself first ran the framework in hockey and repurposed it for this sport, showing that it can be scaled out without designing from scratch.Community-event-style festivalsdraw interest as one-offs, whereas continuous coaching by a cooperator leaves behind "a place where you can keep being taught." The two play different roles, and combining them lets you cover both awareness and retention.
For governing bodies and equipment makers, more instructors and classes in the regions become the foundation for broadening the base of the playing population. Tournaments and pro tours lift the top, while permanent local classes thicken the base.Hosting domestic tournamentsand local grassroots adoption working as two wheels creates a cycle of people who watch, learn, and compete. If Sakai can show results such as participant numbers, there is ample room for neighboring municipalities to follow using the same program.
FAQ
What kind of player is Haruna Shima?
She is an active pickleball player who graduated from the College of Sport and Health Science at Ritsumeikan University and completed the university's graduate program. According to the announcement, she ranked 10th in singles on the PPA Tour Asia as of October 1, 2025, and was selected for Team Japan at the 2025 World Cup.
Can anyone take part in Sakai's trial class?
The town's sports class is aimed at a wide range of generations, from children to adults, and runs 15 sessions in total at the Sakai Town Gymnasium on Saturdays from 19:00 to 21:00, June to October. For detailed eligibility and how to apply, please check Sakai's official information.
Why does hiring a player through the regional revitalization cooperator program help spread the sport?
The regional revitalization cooperator is a system run by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and members' activity expenses are covered financially through special local grant tax. For pickleball, where instructors are still scarce, using this program lets municipalities station specialist talent in rural areas and run continuous classes while keeping their budget burden down -- which is what helps the sport spread.
Recommended Reading
- U.S.-based Picklr's first landing in Japan: from Makuhari to Toyosu
- Hachioji Japan Pickleball Festa
- KINTO-sponsored Utsunomiya International Tournament to be held in July
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