Ajinomoto Co., Inc. Partners with Judo Athlete Tatsuru Saito for Olympic Success

~Strong support for his first Olympic challenge~

Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (President and CEO: Taro Fujie, Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo) has signed a partnership agreement with Tatsuru Saito, a Japanese judo athlete in the men’s over 100 kg class who is considered a strong candidate to win a medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Based on the knowledge about food and amino acids that we have cultivated since our founding, we have been supporting various sports, such as judo athletes Hifumi and Uta Abe and breaking athlete Shigekix.
Now, we have signed a partnership agreement with Saito, who has been selected to compete in the Paris 2024 Olympics, and will be supporting him in his first Olympic challenge. To help Saito maintain his “fighting body” as he takes on the world in the men’s over 100kg class, which is crowded with strong competitors, we will support him with daily training, training camps, and nutritional support activities during the tournament, thereby contributing to him realizing his goals.

＜Profile of Ryu Saito＞
Name: Tatsuru Saito
Affiliation: Japan Elevator Service Holdings Co., Ltd.
Date of birth: March 8, 2002
Birthplace: Osaka Prefecture
Background: Influenced by his father, the late Jin Saito (who won gold medals in the men’s over 95kg judo category at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1992 Seoul Olympics), he began judo at the age of five. In his sixth year of elementary school, he won the individual competition at the National Junior Judo Championships, and in his third year of junior high school, he won the individual competition at the National Junior High School Judo Championships. After moving to Tokyo and enrolling at Kokushikan High School, he won his first international tournament at a junior tournament held in Russia in his second year of high school. He went on to Kokushikan University, and in his second year of university, he won his first senior international tournament at the Grand Slam Baku, and in his third year of university, he won his first All Japan Championship.
Main titles:
2021 Grand Slam Baku Winner
2022 All Japan Championship Winner
2023 World Masters 3rd place
2024 Grand Slam Kazakhstan Winner

When I was in my second year of university, I started to feel strain on my joints, so I tried to lose weight, but I couldn’t perform to my full potential and I couldn’t concentrate on training. My instructor told me to “eat properly!”, so I started to eat properly, and I gained mass again and was able to exert strength again.
However, no matter how big your body is or how much muscle you have, all human joints are the same. How can I lose weight without lowering my output to reduce the burden on my joints? That’s when I met Mr. Kurihara from Ajinomoto Co.’s Victory Project(R).
As I talked with Kurihara-san, I was able to shift my mindset from obsessing about losing weight to changing the inside of me, and I feel that this fits me very well. I want to stabilize my weight and make more and more changes. I feel that there is a lot of room for improvement for me right now!
I am truly grateful for this kind of support. “Thank you so much!”