Controversy on Worlds 2023

Is there more of this? I want more of this. I think everyone on this forum wants more of this.

2 Likes

can we please stick to wife swap related questions during the q&a

6 Likes

Thank you for this. I had no idea he was on wife swap lol

2 Likes

I actually thought the same thing, there is probably a lose-lose outcome either way.

Having to pick sides when you don’t want to, it sucks.

2 Likes

Yessir Unk! Even got my girl on board this morning, she’s hyped about it

7 Likes

For anyone wondering why we needed to go the extra mile to try and get women into yoyoing:

This. This is why.

9 Likes

YYE really needs to add that :skull: react

9 Likes

Steve the furthest I got with that is walk the dog, she did watch a bit of the Worlds livestream with me too though, so I’m just gonna chalk it up as W that she even puts up with me Lmao

6 Likes

4 Likes

If my wife would have sent me those emoji’s. I would be coming home with flowers and dinner reservations for this Friday night and I would be kicking Steve and his chat to the curb.

11 Likes

I promise you I’m not that dumb nor does she think I’m serious lol

4 Likes

sideways engine :flushed: a million and one vacum tubes :flushed:
they are very popular here in new zealand haha

https://iyyf.org/about-a-controversy-during-wyyc2023/

A small controversy occurred during the event, involving National Yo-Yo Master Takahiko Hasegawa reporting on social media that he was “banned” from the event. The IYYF feels this requires some explaining, although it’s impossible for us to provide all context that led to the controversy. IYYF director Steve Brown, being a neutral party on-site, spent several weeks attempting to fully understand the situation and reports his understanding of it below:

Due to disagreements between Mr. Hasegawa and the Japan Yo-Yo Federation stemming from Mr. Hasegawa’s participation on the organizing committee for the World Yo-Yo Contest 2015 in Tokyo, Mr. Hasegawa has not attended any JYYF-organized events since 2015. He has not been formally banned from attending or sponsoring such events, and until 2021 the JYYF reports that it continued to send sponsorship proposals to Mr. Hasegawa in order to give him the option of supporting and participating in these events. According to the JYYF, Mr. Hasegawa declined to answer these proposals and declined to attend the events as either a sponsor, contestant or spectator. In conversation with Mr. Hasegawa, the language barrier made it unclear whether he acknowledged receiving these invitations from the JYYF, as he spoke differently about it during different parts of the conversation.

As a result of this discord, there were private, internal conversations among JYYF board members expressing concern that Mr. Hasegawa would attend the 2023 World Yo-Yo Contest and attempt to use this event to actively protest the JYYF or disrupt the event. These conversations were private and internal and no official consensus or course of action was reached as a result of them.

Mr. Hasegawa found out about the concerns raised in these conversations by an event staff member who is very close to Mr. Hasegawa, causing Mr. Hasegawa considerable distress. He misinterpreted these concerns as official word or action, and took to social media to express his frustration and anger at being “banned” from the event. There are official processes, both within the JYYF and IYYF, for formally banning someone from attending any events organized by these bodies, but none of these official actions were ever taken by either organization. Mr. Hasegawa made no attempt to directly contact members of the IYYF or JYYF for clarification before making his public declarations, and members of both organizations were otherwise occupied running the event and did not have time to resolve this dispute during the event itself.

Regardless of the inability or unwillingness of Mr. Hasegawa and the JYYF to work together, no official ban has been issued to date. Mr. Hasegawa was not banned from the World Yo-Yo Contest 2023 and is also not banned from any future IYYF events at this time.

Post-event, I met with members of the JYYF Board as well as Mr. Hasegawa (separately) to attempt to understand the full nature of the relationship between the JYYF and Mr. Hasegawa, and the information above is accurate to the best of my knowledge. The IYYF has neither the resources nor responsibility to mediate disagreements between member organizations and private individuals, but due to this disagreement taking place during an event the IYYF was overseeing, my involvement to at least understand this dispute seemed necessary.

I hope that all parties involved can find an amicable resolution in the future, or at the very least not disrupt future contests with public disagreements.

41 Likes

Oh look as boring as Steve said it was but everyone just loves drama.

16 Likes

One big communication breakdown. Thanks for mediating!!

5 Likes

#freedrama

4 Likes

Pretty confused why this took so long and needed legal review if you never banned him.

I wonder what was said in those private discords talks about possibly banning taka.

6 Likes

Is Taka going to make a statement? Anyone know? One corroborating this would go a long way, since judging by Taka’s posts during the fiasco, he obviously felt banned (and was barred from entry if my memory serves correct, or atleast he posted an IG story complaining about being barred from entering).

edit:

so… unclear if he actually showed up or not, interested to hear more

Regardless of what communication breakdowns happened my understanding is that he tried to attend to event and was turned away, which… regardless of wording is a ban to me. Very very glad to finally see a statement though.

3 Likes

Based on this and what Steve says. Looks like a point of miscommunication where Taka is under the assumption that if he turns up he will be turned away.

I feel like this could have been quickly solved by just sending him a message when the story went live:

“Hey Taka, come to worlds, you’re not banned, let’s hang out!”

Edit: not to say all things can be solved that easily but I appreciate Steve dealing with our community speculation and tea drinking.

It’s nice to see an answer and I hope we will see Taka at future events where there are no miscommunications and he feels welcome to attend with this cleared up.

6 Likes

It took so long because I didn’t even get to talk to Taka until my last day in Japan. And once I wrote it up, it needed to be reviewed by a JYYF lawyer because in Japan, libel laws are no joke so we needed to make sure I wasn’t saying something that was gonna cause expensive problems for anyone else.

18 Likes