Karate International

Karate International is a private martial arts company which attempts to unite individual karate clubs from around the world.

Karate International has clubs in 26 countries, including Japan, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Australia, Colombia, Spain, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, and the United States of America.

Karate International holds an annual tournament in July every year. The tournament has been held in Okinawa, Japan since its conception in 2001. The company’s strong focus on promotion and telecasting has led to over 13 events, including unusual and non-traditional procedures.

Being a private sporting organization, Karate International has suffered controversy and competition from government-run sporting bodies in the past. One of the most infamous incidents involved Malaysian Karate superstar Wi Hun Lin, who could not represent his home country in 2003 national trials due to a scheduling clash with a Karate International event. The 2003 Tournament made headlines again, after allowing women to compete against men for the first time in an International Martial Arts competition. Women and men had previously competed in separate divisions.

In 2005, the newly formed Australian delegation to the Karate International tournament was disqualified on the grounds that the style employed by the Australian team was significantly different from the traditional style used by all other nations. However, the team was later re-appointed, and went on to win several divisions.

In 2006, the tournament again fell into controversy after a large quantity of intravenous anabolic steroids were discovered in the accommodation of one of the athletes. This incident raised questions about the functionality of a private sporting body, and whether it should be subjected to the stringent standards of similar government-controlled sporting bodies.

Despite such controversy, Karate International enjoys a global base of over 30,000 members, and is one of the richest sporting bodies in the world. Their annual international tournament and regional events attract large sponsorship deals, and the 2006 Annual Tournament was believed to have received net profits of over $20 million US.