[3] A day prior to the race, the International Friendship Run was held with a distance of roughly 4 km.

[5] Organisational changes improved the charity fun running aspect of the race: 3000 entries were reserved for charity runners, tax relief was given to charitable donations, and role of sponsors and corporations in raising funds was expanded.

[6] Building on the race's inclusion with the World Marathon Majors circuit, race director Tadaaki Hayano invited numerous elite international marathon runners with fast personal bests.

[7][6] Irina Mikitenko was the fastest entrant among the elite women, following by Bezunesh Bekele, Aberu Kebede and Caroline Kilel.

Arata Fujiwara, Kazuhiro Maeda, Yoshinori Oda and Takayuki Matsumiya were the foremost Japanese men, all having bests below two hours and ten minutes.