An internal, unofficial decision has been handed down selecting Aoyama Gakuin University Track and Field Team Long-distance Running Division runner YOSHIDA Keita (third-year student in the Department of Global Studies and Collaboration, School of Global Studies and Collaboration) as one of the Olympic torch relay runners for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

In 2019, YOSHIDA ran the third stage of the Izumo Ekiden, one of Japan's three major ekiden long-distance relay races; the seventh stage of the All Japan University Men’s Ekiden; and the ninth stage of the Tokyo–Hakone Round-Trip College Ekiden Race, for which he took a single-stage prize. Through these competitions and others, YOSHIDA has been active as a leading member of the University's Track and Field Team Long-distance Running Division.

Before enrolling at Aoyama Gakuin University, YOSHIDA graduated from the Hiroshima Prefectural Sera Senior High School. The torch relay will be held in Hiroshima Prefecture, his home prefecture, on Monday, May 18 and Tuesday, May 19, 2020.