MOWA Heritage Athletics Exhibition Tokyo 2025 promotional cardSpectacular sights, highlights and ‘selfies with the stars’
The smaller of the two MOWA displays in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building No.1 will be located on the 45th floor of the North Tower Observatory which is an established tourist attraction. That floor offers spectacular views across the Tokyo skyline, giving visitors the opportunity to gaze out over the city to the National Stadium where the World Athletics Championships will take place from 13 to 21 September.
The 45th floor exhibit will feature life-sized cut-outs of Taniguchi and Kitaguchi and of USA’s Carl Lewis, who set a world 100m record in Tokyo in 1991, next to whom visitors can pose to take ‘selfies with the stars’.
Touch screens will allow visitors to select and watch video highlights of many of the 1991 gold medallists in action and the victories of the seven Japanese world champions who have been crowned since the first edition in Helsinki in 1983.
There will also be a display of the MOWA historic collection with artefacts dating back to 1924 including items from legendary athletes such as Jesse Owens, Fanny Blankers-Koen Emil Zatopek, Wyomia Tyus and Alberto Juantorena, from the decades prior to the first World Athletics Championships.
Bringing the display right up to date, there will be artefacts from today’s headline acts such as Paris Olympic champions Sifan Hassan, Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Nafissatou Thiam, who will fight for victory in Tokyo in 2025.
Chronological and contextual displays
The main MOWA exhibition will be on the second floor, which is easy to find as it is at this level that all visitors to the 45th floor observatory deck leave the North Tower. MOWA is immediately to the right as they exit the lift.
Those displays chronologically cover the history of the 19 editions of the World Athletics Championships from 1983 to 2023 with dozens of competition artefacts from legends such as Lewis, Usain Bolt, Valerie Adams, Allyson Felix, Jan Zelezny and more, supported by video, photographs and text explanations in English and Japanese.
This year’s centenary of the Japanese Association of Athletics Federations will also be featured.
As is customary in larger MOWA exhibitions, the athletes’ achievements will be put into context. There will be actual height displays of the men’s and women’s pole vault and high jump world records for visitors to stand next to, walk under and admire in awe. Visitors will also be able to safely lift the shot, discus, hammer and javelin implements to gauge the difference between the men’s and women’s category weights.
As on floor two, there will be life-sized cutouts of further famous athletes such as sprint legend Bolt and Japanese global champions Koji Murofushi and Mizuki Noguchi.
What: MOWA Heritage Exhibition Tokyo 2025
When: Sunday 6 July to Sunday 21 September 2025
Where: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building No.1, 2-8-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo 163-8001
Transport: Metro – Tochomae Station (Oedo Line) is conveniently located directly beneath the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building No.1, which is only three metro stops away, a six-minute journey from the National Stadium
Unable to visit the exhibition?
The collection of the Museum of World Athletics can be permanently viewed online in the world’s first digital 3D sports museum.
Chris Turner for World Athletics Heritage
AloJapan.com