Goalball

SMBC Trust Bank has been an official partner of the Japan GoalBall Association since August 2016.

Photo: the Japan GoalBall Association

It is a ball-based sport designed for people with visual impairment. In this match-type game, athletes wearing eyeshades roll a ball containing a bell (1.25 kg) toward an opposing team's goal and gain a point when the ball enters the goal. Relying on the sound of the ball, footsteps of the opposing team's athletes, and subtle vibrations on the floor from movement, athletes compete to gain points while playing the roles of offense and defense alternately.

Goalball is an official Paralympics sport. The Japan women's national goalball team won the gold medal at the London Paralympics in 2012, and Japan is one of the leading goalball countries. Both the men's and women's teams are expected to achieve excellent performance at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2020.

Here's a short video on how goalball is played (Japanese only).

We have a goalball athlete in our bank. In addition, the SMBC Group has handicapped athlete employees who train their skills and join games, trying to step onto the world stage in their own fields.

We are Team SMBC(Japanese only)

We support goalball and other para-sports to grow. For that purpose, we form a cheering squad for championship events, dispatch volunteers to help the organizer of such events, and participate in experience events. We also hold training sessions with lecturers from the Japan GoalBall Association to upgrade our behavior toward the blind and visually impaired as part of our efforts to enhance customer satisfaction (CS) .

Our cheering squad at a championship event

Experience event

Training session