Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike just declared publicly that a two-day esports event would be held in Tokyo in 2019. With the aim to encourage the video game and anime industries of this city, the event will be sponsored 50 million yen (about $450,000) from the 2019 budget of Tokyo.
Koike herself also stated with the press that this event is a chance for companies and organization working in the related fields to go public, have some attention from customers since esports is the business that creates pathways for many other businesses.
The Japan Esports Union (JeSU) was founded in 2018 as the result of the fast-growing esports in Japan. Besides the primary function as an organization to provide the base for assisting players, raising talents and authorizing matches, JeSU also work to eliminate the void and find the same voice between the legal requirements of the Japanese government on competition and gambling and the legal owners and developers of esports championship.
As a part of the cultural program at Japan’s 2019 National Sports Festival (which will take place in Ibaraki province) in October, an esports championship of "Pro Evolution Soccer 2019" or “PES 2019” games will be held within the event with JeSU as one of the hosts.
On December 2018, Hideki Okamura, the current president of JeSU, verbalized the ambition of esports joining Olympic. He pointed out that the motion for this ambition comes from the fact that the esports are developing in Japan for years, and JeSU promised to bring it to a totally new level this year. JeSU also believed that raising the acknowledgment of the residents is the key to bring esports to the International Olympic or the Japanese Olympic.
The time and place and surrounding information of the event in Tokyo are yet to be announced.