Baseball5 partners with 3x3 Basketball to offer urban sport experience for special need students in Japan

Oberlin University in Machida City, Tokyo, Japan, hosted an unprecedented initiative to introduce two urban sports - Baseball5 and 3x3 Basketball - to 20 students from special needs schools.

Junk 5 Elements, the winners of the 2026 Japanese Baseball5 National Championship (the III Samurai Japan Challenge Cup), partnered with the Shibuya-based 3x3 basketball team Addelm Elements to provide the 20 participating students the opportunity to experience both Baseball5 and 3x3 Basketball.

"Through sports, their social skills and communication abilities have greatly improved. It's truly a precious opportunity because it cultivates significant strengths that will connect to employment after graduation," stated a spokesperson.

Kenta Wakamatsu (pictured above), who managed Japan to second place at the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup 2024, is the Junk 5 Elements coach who came up with the idea to organise the event.

"Seeing the students play both sports in that small gymnasium made me feel there's real value in continuing our efforts under the 'urban sports' concept. Despite their completely different competitive characteristics, I was genuinely impressed by how they managed to create such an amazing space through the common thread of urban sports.

"We will continue to pursue groundbreaking initiatives to enhance the value of Baseball5 and baseball-style sports," Wakamatsu added. "Baseball5 is a sport with the potential to invigorate the entire educational world, allowing all students to enjoy physical activity and foster communication. By steadily accumulating experience and achievements through what we can do, we aim to operate a team that serves as a global model in all aspects: strengthening, popularisation, and education."

Junk 5 Elements has been a long-time advocate of using baseball to create "a more inclusive society". In December 2025, they created a Baseball5 team formed by students from special needs schools and had it compete in the youth division of the qualifying tournaments to the National Championship while one year ago, the College of Health and Welfare at Oberlin University, in collaboration with the Junk Baseball5 Team, hosted the first Tokyo Metropolitan Special Needs Schools Baseball 5 Experience & Exchange Day.