OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2015. NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced the expansion of its support for para-sports in collaboration with STAND, a leading NPO that promotes a wide range of sports for individuals with disabilities.

NEC's contribution to the disabled community includes more than 20 years of sponsoring wheelchair tennis with the International Tennis Federation. Moreover, since 2009, NEC and STAND have been providing live broadcasts of wheelchair tennis over the Internet to increase the interest of the public in para-sports.

Formerly, para-sports were almost exclusively limited to rehabilitation purposes. However, in recent years, para-sports have been steadily expanding to include competitive professional sports at the highest levels.

In Japan's Basic Act on Sports enacted in 2011, sports for the disabled reached a new domestic milestone with additional recognition on the political stage. However, even now, there is still a great deal of work needed in order to raise the exposure level for para-sports.

NEC believes that helping to deliver the excitement and intensity of para-sports to the screens of smartphones and computers creates a variety of valuable new social benefits. For instance, inspired by the highest level of play by para-sports athletes, children may become more active and ambitions in pursuing their own goals.

As a result, NEC aims to help provide services in partnership with STAND that enable individuals around the world to enjoy any sport that they like, where people with and without disabilities aim to become top athletes, and everyone can share the excitement of para-sports.

Please see the following video on NEC's expanding promotion of para-sports (NEC Online TV YouTube): http://youtu.be/R5rdrSxUUWk