Chef de mission Noriyuki Ichihara, a board member of the Japan Olympic Committee, told a news conference Wednesday that four-time Olympic gold medalist and breaststroke world record holder Kitajima was the “core” of the team.
Ichihara said Japan would have competitors in all 42 sports at the games which begin Saturday and end on Nov. 27.
He said Japan’s annual budget of $30 million for the key sports was designed to help the team keep up with China and South Korea in the Asian Games medal count.
“These Asian Games have more sports and more events, and we hope we can win 50 to 60 gold medals over the next few weeks,” said Ichihara. “We hope we can at least match what we won in Doha.” Javelin thrower Yukifumi Murakami, a world championship bronze medalist, is captain of the Japan squad and badminton star Reiko Shiota will be the flag bearer at the opening ceremony Friday.
Kitajima, the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke champion at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics, is among 29 swimmers named to Japan’s team.
Other prominent swimmers include world 100-meter backstroke champion Junya Koga and world 200 butterfly bronze medalist Takeshi Matsuda.
China and Japan won 16 gold medals each in the Asian Games pool four years ago, and the host team has said it hopes to overtake Japan in Guangzhou.
The Japan swimming federation, which had unofficially been provided 38 spots by the national Olympic committee, decided to go with only top swimmers.
“We have narrowed it down to a select few who will give our team a fighting chance,” Koji Ueno, the head of Japan’s swimming team, said last month.
Japan also expects to pick up medals in gymnastics and judo and the non-Olympic sports of dance, karate and softball.
The judo team, which won 10 gold medals at the recent world championships — seven of the champions are in Guangzhou — was warned by the head of the All Japan Judo Federation that places for the 2012 London Olympics would be at stake.
Harauki Uemura, also an official with the Japan delegation here, won a gold medal in the open class at the 1976 Olympics and a world title the year before.
“How can you talk about a London Olympics berth or medaling in London when you haven’t even won in Asia?” he said.
