The Nippon Cup 　 In 1987, the first Nippon Cup International Yacht Match Race was hosted by the Hayama Marina Yacht Club （HMYC）after the announcement of the entry for the America's Cup by the Nippon Challenge. It is believed that the first Nippon Cup contributed to gain recognition of yacht match races and played an important role in the first challenge for the America's Cup when match racing wasn't at all popular in Japan. Even though a match racing had became popular as a common competition style of yachting after 1992 when the Nippon Challenge challenged the America's Cup for the first time, the Nippon Cup continued to endeavor popularization of yachting in various aspects. The Nippon Cup provided opportunities for practices of umpiring, opportunities for sailors in Japan to watch the performance of qualified world match racers and in addition, it has made yacht clubs popular in Japan, which are commonly known in Western countries. The Nippon Cup was continuously held for the past sixteen years contributing to the development of yachting in Japan. Approximately fifteen match races ranked as the Grade One event, including the Nippon Cup, are held every year. Participation of skippers from all over the world who aspire to win the America's Cup proves that the Nippon Cup is one of the high level international competitions. Points won by the skippers in these match race regattas become basis of the world match race ranking. In 1998 the Nippon Cup became the first ISAF World Championship of Match Race Sailing to be held in Japan. The winner of this event, the premiere Grade 1 race, was declared the world champion for 1998. After the 2000 Nippon Cup, annual running of the event was discontinued due to the terrorist attacks in New York City and also because the America's Cup was held at the same time. The hosting of the Nippon Cup in 1998 had coincided with the establishment of Nippon Sail Training (NST) as an organization affiliated with the Hayama Marina Yacht Club. The same type of boats used in yacht match races, the Yamaha-23, were maintained by Hayama Marina, which provided sailing training opportunities and facilities for the Japan Yacht Match Race Association, founded around the same time. In this way the Hayama Marina Yacht Club has played an important cooperative role in the establishment of yacht match racing in Japan. After a hiatus of two years, the Hayama Marina Yacht Club built six new Yamaha 30S boats for use in yacht match races. This makes it possible for competitions to be held under the same conditions as international match racing events. It can thus be said that the stage is now set for the holding of world-class yacht match racing competitions in Japan. As the birthplace of yacht match racing in Japan, the Hayama Marina Yacht Club hopes that the sport will continue to develop in this country and that one day a Japanese team will bring the America's Cup to Japan.