A Mysterious Karate Woman on the Stairway of Dreams | Takebashi Guide

The "Stairway of Dreams" that links the Palaceside Building first-floor and B1 atrium. Midway, a mysterious woman holds a karate pose――.

Her unmasked face is the beautiful young woman in the photo at left. Actress Hitomi Korenaga (24) is a special karate ambassador certified by the Japan Karate Federation. The opening karate scene is a moment from the new Olympic commercial "Dig Deep Toward the Truth," which The Mainichi Newspapers, an official newspaper partner of Tokyo 2020, has just produced with the Palaceside Building as its stage. Cool, isn't it.

The 30-second spot, as in the sequence at the end, opens with "TOKYO 2020" in close-up against the Palaceside Building, then Korenaga runs through kata in a corridor, an elevator hall like the inside of a UFO, and the Stairway of Dreams; the words "Straight toward the facts." "Connecting every day to the future." "Dig deep toward the truth" appear in each scene, and it ends with Korenaga holding a newspaper and a smartphone (online news) in both hands, as in the last photo. You can watch it online (https://video.mainichi.jp/detail/video/6060645699001).

On July 24, exactly one year before Tokyo 2020 opens, a new-CM launch was held in Mainichi

Hall on the Palaceside Building first basement; Korenaga appeared and greeted the room in the photo at upper left (from the Mainichi website). She changed into a karate gi and struck the same pose as in the commercial. Karate athlete Emiri Iwamoto, expected at Tokyo 2020, also came and showed kata as if on a real stage =photo right (same source).

Korenaga was born in Oita Prefecture in 1995 and entered entertainment after winning the first Miss Beautiful 20s Contest in 2016. The contest drew some 40,018 applications. She began karate at 12 and now holds a third dan (Shito-ryu). "The power to keep going I learned from karate. When I struggle in lessons or on set, the strength to keep my heart steady I also learned from karate," she says.

Since autumn 2017, a thousand days before the Olympics, The Mainichi Newspapers has run television commercials using karate. The first was "Straight Toward the Facts" (https://video.mainichi.jp/detail/video/5717440711001/%E6%AF%8E%E6%97%A5%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E%E7%A4%BEcm%E3%80%8C%E4%BA%8B%E5%AE%9F%E3%81%B8%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A3%E3%81%99%E3%81%90%E3%80%8D%E7%AF%87?autoStart=true&page=1&q=%E6%AF%8E%E6%97%A5%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E%E7%A4%BECM%20), with Korenaga showing kata full of force on the Palaceside Building rooftop; this is the second. It makes effective use of the building's refined design spaces.

Work on the Palaceside Building began in 1964, the year of the last Tokyo Olympics (completion 1967). Half a century on it is still praised as a masterpiece of modern architecture for its advanced design, so it is a perfect stage for an Olympic commercial (sorry for the self-praise).

　The Mainichi Newspapers will also roll out radio spots, posters and illuminated station boards in tandem with the TV commercial; illuminated photos have appeared facing you as you climb the stairs from the Takadanobaba–Nakano-bound platform at home-base Takebashi Station toward the Mainichi Newspapers entrance =photos right, above= and at the head of the Tozai Line Nakano-bound platform at neighboring Otemachi Station =photo right