Japanese Soccer

In Japan, soccer is a relatively new sport quickly becoming one of the most popular sports in the country behind baseball. The Japanese men, nicknamed Samurai Blue after the colors of their jerseys, are one of the highest ranked Asian teams in the world. The Women’s national team, nicknamed Nadeshiko Japan, is the defending World Cup champion after beating the defending champion United States. They were the first Asian team, both for men’s and women’s, to win soccer’s biggest prize. Both have quickly made a name for each other in Asia as well as becoming one of the most respected Asian teams around the world.

Competitive soccer in Japan is organized into a pyramidal system similar to that in many European leagues. At the top of the hierarchy is the professional level called the J.League. Next is the semi-professional level called the Japan Football League, followed by the regional and then by the prefectural leagues, which are within their region of the country. The relatively new J.League was started in 1993 and it is currently comprised of three divisions - J. League Division 1 (J1), J. League Division 2 (J2) and J. League Division 3 (J3). Being a relatively young league, the number of teams in the J.League has been changing since its inception, with each division having around one to two dozen teams. Several thousand teams from the professional to the high school level, furthermore, participate in an annual knockout tournament, The Emperor's Cup. The final game of the cup is held every year on January 1.

The Japan Football Association was founded in 1921, inspired by the English Football Association's presentation in 1919. The Japanese soccer body for the sport would have been delayed if not for the dedicated efforts of William Haigh, a British diplomat in Japan. The advancement of soccer was delayed during the war effort.  In the early 1990’s, Japan wanted to refocus their effort on soccer, therefore, creating the J.League. In 2002, Japan cohosted the World Cup with South Korea which helped promote the sport in Japan and represented what Japan had to offer to the soccer world.

Until this point soccer had never truly developed in Asia. After that World Cup, soccer started to take off around Asia. Today Australia and Japan are the most developed soccer countries in Asia. Occasionally another country develops a quality roster but Japan in a mainstay in Asian soccer, especially the women’s game. Look for Japan to keep climbing the ranking s in the soccer world and compete for a men’s World Cup in the near future.

Next week we head into multi-continental Russia and take a look at the soccer traits that link them to both Asia and Europe. Russia has a storied soccer history but never has claimed greatness like most European countries soccer. Come join us next week as we continue our quest around the globe.