{"id":6237,"date":"2021-11-18T11:53:26","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T02:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=6237"},"modified":"2022-05-13T18:08:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T09:08:51","slug":"20211118-6237","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20211118-6237\/","title":{"rendered":"FFXIV sound director\u2019s return is being celebrated with a horse race in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Publication date of the <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/newsjp\/20211117-182751\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original Japanese article<\/a>: 2021-11-17 17:28 (JST)<br>Translated by. Nick Mosier<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>It appears that the Kochi Racecourse in Japan will be holding a race called \u201cThe Soken\u2019s Return Commemoration Special.\u201d (\u7956\u5805\u3055\u3093\u5e30\u9084\u8a18\u5ff5\u7279\u5225) The race is being sponsored by a <em><strong>Final Fantasy XIV<\/strong> (FFXIV)<\/em> player in Japan that goes by Inary Kinchuck, and is a celebration of Masayoshi Soken, the sound director of <em>FFXIV<\/em>, seeing his cancer go into remission. The race will take place on November 20 and is scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m. JST.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u304a\u663c\u306b\u9ad8\u77e5\u7af6\u99ac\u69d8\u304b\u3089\u96fb\u8a71\u9023\u7d61\u304c\u3042\u308a\u3001\u78ba\u5b9a\u3057\u305f\u306e\u3067\u304a\u77e5\u3089\u305b\uff01<br>\u5354\u8cdb\u3055\u305b\u3066\u3044\u305f\u3060\u304d\u307e\u3057\u305f\uff01\ud83d\udc34<br>\u7686\u3055\u3093\u697d\u3057\u3093\u3067\u304f\u3060\u3055\u3044\u30fc\ud83c\udfb8<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qmakuyTjDD\">https:\/\/t.co\/qmakuyTjDD<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u30a4\u30ca\u30ea\u30a3\u2604\ufe0fUnicorn (@oinari3an_ff14) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/oinari3an_ff14\/status\/1460854590128021510?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 17, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption><font size=\"2\"><strong>Tweet Translation:<br><\/strong>I got a call from the Kochi Racecourse this afternoon, and it\u2019s all set! I\u2019m sponsoring a horse race! I hope everyone enjoys it.<\/font><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Back at <em>FFXIV<\/em>\u2019s Digital Fan Festival 2021 event in May, Soken announced that he had been suffering from cancer but that it has gone into remission. He battled with the illness between March through October of last year and revealed that he had been working from his hospital bed during that time (<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/newsjp\/20210517-161535\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">related article<\/a> in Japanese). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the broadcast ended, the hashtag #WelcomeBackSoken could be seen on social media as players celebrated his return. Players have done everything from defeating in-game bosses in his honor to putting together a giant musical collaboration (<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210605-899\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">related article<\/a>) to celebrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Soken\u2019s Return Commemoration Special is an individually sponsored horse race taking place at a regional horse racing track. An individually sponsored race is where a person gets to attach a title to a horse race by paying a sponsorship fee. In addition to tickets to the race and commemorative photos, depending on the region, sponsors can also provide a message to be read before the race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sponsorship fees vary by region, but it\u2019s typically between 10,000 to 70,000 yen (around $100 to $700). Whether that\u2019s expensive or not will depend on the person, but it\u2019s not an amount that\u2019s totally out of reach for most people. Many regional tracks have \u201ccommemoration\u201d and \u201cin memoriam\u201d listed on their information pages, so they\u2019re likely aiming for a price that\u2019s suitable for such use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But celebratory races don\u2019t stop at just family and friends. There have also been individually sponsored races for idols and fictional characters. These have especially increased since the launch of horse racing girl training \u00a0simulator <em>Uma Musume Pretty Derby<\/em>. These types of races are referred to \u201cita races\u201d (similar linguistic origins as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Itasha\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Itasha<\/a>) in Japan and there\u2019s even a <a href=\"https:\/\/itaracefan.web.fc2.com\/index.html\">website<\/a> called Ita Race Collection that compiles information on them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we look at Ita Race Collection, we can see an increase in these kinds of races since the start of 2021. It seems that once word spread that a horse race could easily be sponsored, fans began using them as a way to show support for their fandom.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" src=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001-696x392.jpg 696w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001-1068x601.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211117-182751-001-747x420.jpg 747w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>The Soken\u2019s Return Commemoration Special is being held at the Kochi Racecourse, where after reading the sponsor\u2019s message, the announcer will regularly add a kind word of their own. Besides the race, hearing the preceding messages will also be worth checking out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The race and messages will be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4QSKl_Hj9AY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">broadcast<\/a> on the track\u2019s official YouTube channel, so it\u2019s still possible to check it out, even if you can\u2019t get there in person. In addition, betting slips for the race are available through several sports betting websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Soken\u2019s Return Commemoration Special is gathering attention on social media as Inary Kinchuck\u2019s show of support spreads through the community. The horse race may serve to get fans even more excited before the launch of <em>FFXIV<\/em>\u2019s upcoming <em>Endwalker<\/em> expansion on December 7.<br><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">\u00a9 2010 \u2013 2021 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FFXIV sound director Masayoshi Soken\u2019s return is being celebrated with a horse race in Japan. The race will be broadcast on the Kochi Racecourse\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,3],"tags":[36,17],"class_list":["post-6237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-final-fantasy","category-news","tag-final-fantasy","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FFXIV sound director\u2019s return is being celebrated with a horse race in Japan - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FFXIV sound director Masayoshi Soken\u2019s return is being celebrated with a horse race in Japan. 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