[1]: 812 [2] The original Japanese term had nothing to do with a sport or a competition, but it simply referred to the age old post-horse or stagecoach courier system which transmitted communication by stages, instead of one horse or a man covering the entire long distance.

In written Japanese, ekiden combines the character for "station" (駅) and another for "transmit" (伝) and as a word it goes back to ancient times.

As a modern game, however, it owes its naming to the poet Zenmaro Toki (1885–1980), who was head of the Yomiuri Shimbun's Social Affairs Department at the time.

The original concept of the race hearkens back to Japan's old Tōkaidō communication and transportation system in which stations were posted at intervals along the road.

Notably in distance, in the Round-Kyūshū Ekiden, a 10 days event, 72 segments cover 1064 kilometers around Kyushu Island and it is the longest relay race in the world.

It is a popular spectator sport that draws large crowds (a million or more) along the whole route and receives full network television coverage nationwide over the two days.

[2][5][6] Runners in the race compete to set individual records (e.g., stage times, number of schools passed) as well as to support their teams, and the race is considered to display many aspects of Japanese culture and spirit,[2] including individual perseverance, identity within a group, and the importance within the Japanese hierarchy of allegiance to a major university.

[7] School-based teams and competition in the name of one's school are highly prized concepts common to both Japan and North America.

The junior high championship ekiden is not a road race but rather each runner runs a loop within the confines of a park.

It is a regional version of the Empress Cup National Women's Ekiden in January, with 18 prefectural teams made up of runners ranging from junior high to professional.

[15] Since 1998, a select team of Ivy league alumni runners from the United States has competed and found the competition quite stiff.

On the first Sunday of November, the men compete in the 8 stage, 106.8 kilometer National Collegiate Ekiden Championship in Aichi and Mie Prefectures.

Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, is host to the All-Japan Collegiate Women's Invitational Ekiden, the 6th annual having been held on December 23‚ 2008.

[24][25][26][27] The Women's All-Japan Interprefectural Ekiden Championships – Empress Cup – is held in Kyoto on the third Sunday in January.

The race was run in six-stages over a 42.195 kilometer course beginning and ending at Yokohama's Red Brick Warehouse (Akarenga) arts space.

[39][40] It has been claimed that the high TV viewership of this meet makes it the central motivating event in the annual calendar for professional Japanese male runners.

On February 1, 2009, 51 one teams competed the 63rd annual 7 stage 61.25 km race starting in Ebino City, Miyazaki Prefecture.

The listing is not exhaustive for the region and does not include the exclusively secondary and tertiary school and professional ekidens which are linked to the prefecture and national championships (see above).

On the third Sunday of January, a four-stage 11.6 km ekiden is held annually in Yoyogi Park of Shibuya (Tokyo).

Preregistration for this annual event is open during the second and third week of November, at the Shibuya Sports Center and the Ward Central Office.

On the last Sunday of January, the OkuMusashi Ekiden (see 奥むさし駅伝競走大会 [ja]) has been held in Hannō City, Saitama Prefecture, since 2002.

The race is 38.792 kilometers (net vertical gain of 120 meters but with many gentle ups and downs), starting at Higashi Hanno station.

The course winds through the city of Hanno, then up the long, narrow valley toward Chichibu, with a turn-around at Nishi Agano station.

The printed meet program names approximately 1000 volunteers, not including innumerable police and traffic regulators along the 10 kilometers of city streets.

The men's open and high school boys' (may include girl members) teams run a combined 4-stage relay of 28.968 km around Lake Tama.

The remaining contestants of a wide assortment of categories run a 4-stage race of 9.628 km within the confines of Sayama Koen park.

For many of the first 20 years, the reconstruction of the dam forming Lake Tama forced the event organizers to eliminate the round-the-lake format and use local streets instead of the park.

The Ekiden Carnival, held in early May (May 8, 2011 – registration closed April 11), is conducted along the Arakawa River Cycling Road.

The Prince Takamatsu Cup Nishinippon Round-Kyūshū Ekiden, held annually and from 2011 referred to Grand Tour Kyushu, follows a thousand-kilometer (72 stages covering 1056.6 km) course in Kyūshū and is sponsored by the Nishi Nippon Shimbun (newspaper) of Fukuoka.

[46][better source needed] The race begins in Nagasaki and consists of one loop of the coast of Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, heading south, turning and heading north through Miyazaki, and ending in Fukuoka; the original 10-day venue has been reduced to 8 days of running, with 6 to 8 legs each day.