January 11, 2005
A Look Ahead, One Hundred Years
 | Some of you are probably shaking your heads and wondering if weve been overindulging in the New Year's celebratory sake. But no, this is a very serious promotional campaign. In fact, Mr Pitch even has his very own web site (http://www.jsgoal.jp/mrpitch/ ), complete with messages of encouragement from schoolchildren all over the country and pictures of Mr. GrassyClodofDirt, visiting J.League stadiums far and wide, and posing with bemused players, politicians and celebrities of all types. |
Essentially, the "hundred year" portion of the plan is vague, and about as hyperbolic as it sounds. Apart from some very broad and airy objectives, there really is no sense of what the League really envisions happening one hundred years from now. But the attitude seems to be that adopting such a far-reaching name and objective will help demonstrate how serious the organizers take their mission. As for actual details, these can be filled in bit by bit, as years go by. But basically, the League is dedicating its efforts to the growth of the sport, at both the professional and amateur levels, such that one day every prefecture in Japan, and every major city, will have at least one professional team. Though this may be a rather vague and distant objective, the "Hundred Year Plan" consists of more than just starry-eyed, long-term goals. In addition, there is a very specific plan, covering about the next ten to fifteen years, whose goal is to create a three-division league structure containing about 50 teams.
The first step in the "Hundered Year Plan" involved establishing a uniform organization for all football leagues, and a uniform format for all league competitions. The league has been working out the details of this step over the past few years, and eventually decided to adopt a format similar to that used in most European leagues. Among other changes, extra time was eliminated from league contests (at the end of the 2003 season). In the future, extra time will be used only in the knockout round of cup competitions. In addition, the League decided to introduce a single-stage format for all divisions. The J2 has always operated with only a single-stage, but apart from 1996, the J1 championship was always decided by playing two "stages", with the winners of each stage playing one another in a home-and-away playoff. This format will be abandoned in 2005, so 2004 marked the last time that two separate stage champions were decided, and the last time that a "Suntory Championship Series" was played.
The second step was to expand the top division to 18 teams, which officials consider to be an ideal number for scheduling purposes (34 league matches played over a 52-week year). Expansion of the top division was accomplished by shifting two teams from the second division (J2) to the top division. The top two teams in the J2 were awarded automatic promotion, and the last-placed J1 team played a promotion/relegation series against the third-ranked J2 team. From 2005, the system of promotion and relegation will revert to its previous format, with the top two J2 teams advancing and the bottom two J1 teams relegated
The third step, which began in earnest at the start of last year, will be to expand the J2, step by step, to around 16 or 18 teams, via promotion from the JFL (which is currently a quasi-amateur league). Two teams earned promotion from the JFL at the end of 2004, so the initial indications are that this step will proceed fairly quickly and smoothly. The fourth step, which officials indicate may be implemented as early as 2010, will be to trasform the JFL into a third professional division (possibly with regional segmentation like the North and South leagues in Germany's lower division).
It is impossible to say what impact these changes will have, and that is one reason why our strongest feeling, looking back at 2004, is a sense of transition and change. It seems that the J.League has left its boisterous and happy childhood behind, and is stepping forward into adolescence, with all its adventures and uncertainties. But changes to the league structure and tournament rules were just the first chapter in the saga of change. In March, two entirely new teams will join the league -- the first TRULY new additions since 1999 (though Yokohama FC joined the league at the end of the 2000 season, it is basically a reconstituted incarnation of the former Yokohama Flugels). Next year, at least one and probably two clubs will join them. Close behind is a pack of over two dozen teams that have formally declared their intention to build themselves into viable professional clubs, and win promotion to the J.League. Though demographics and competition with existing clubs suggests that some of these teams may be unable to succeed, unless they move to a more suitable home town, others seem almost certain to gain promotion to the J.League in time.
At present, there are 30 J.League teams and another 16 teams in the JFL. The distribution of these teams is quite broad, covering most of the geographical regions, and a majority of prefectures. Naturally, big urban centers such as Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama are heavily represented, but of Japan's 47 prefectures, 27 have at least one J.League or JFL team.
The spread of football throughout the country becomes even more apparent when you look at prospective J.League applicants. Seven prefectures that do not currently have a J.League club have a team in the JFL, and many of these are seeking promotion. On top of that, nine other prefectures host clubs that have officially announced their intention of making a bid for J.League promotion. If all of these teams are eventually incorporated into the J.League, there would be only eight prefectures left without a J.League team.
And so, as we look ahead to the 2005 season, it seems an ideal time to look at some of the clubs that have been established, throughout the country, with hopes of progressing to J.League status. This week, we have collected information on a number of teams currently playing in the JFL, or one of the regional leagues, and will consider their prospects for longer term success as J.League candidates.
Ehime Football Club
|
Ehime FC was founded in 1970 under the name Matsuyama Football Club. However, the team was just a small, local club whith little serious support or competitive ability until 1995, when it was reorganised as an independent club, with support from the prefectural government, and adopted the name "Ehime FC". The team quickly became a top competitor in its region, and won the Shikoku regional league championship several times during the 1990s. In 2001, after having won the regional championship for three years in a row, Ehime FC won promotion to the JFL.
| Thereafter, the club began to attract more and more local support, and though it did not have the corporate backing required to hire top-notch players, the tremendous fan support helped carry the team to a third-place finish in the JFL, in 2003. Encouraged by the results, Ehime FC began to set its sights on promotion to the J.League, in earnest. Prior to the 2004 season, the team established an independent management corporation -- Ehime FC Co., Ltd. -- which included as one of its corporate goals the aim of achieving quick promotion to the J.League. Along with the new organization, the team adopted a new mascot and team colours, while the local government began to get behind the team, to help it in its bid for a J.League spot. Though Ehime FC fell short in 2004, it is gaining strength financially, in terms of player skill, and most of all, in terms of local fan support. And why not? It is hard to find anything about this club NOT to like, whether it be the team mascot -- a delightfully deranged tangerine named "Oran-jay" -- or the even MORE delightful official English name for the team's home stadium -- (I SWEAR, I am not making this up!) "Ehime Comprehensive Movement Park". |  |
If the team continues on its current track, there is a strong chance that Ehime FC will win promotion to the J2 in 2005. They would certainly be a welcome addition to the J.League, particularly if their tremendous local support continues.
SC Tottori
|
As a team that emerged entirely from grassroots-level support, FC Tottori has never had any strong corporate ties, and thus is a good potential candidate for promotion to the J.League. The team has gradually been attracting local fans, and following the success of regional rivals such as Tokushima Vortis and Ehime FC, SC Tottori has begun to focus more intently on the possibility of advancing to the J.League. The "San-in" region, on the Japan Sea coast of western Japan, is the only one of Japan's major historical regions that still does not have J.League team. The San-in region has always been a very sleepy, rural and undeveloped area of Japan, but there are some large cities such as Tottori and Matsue, which may be large enough to support a J.League club. It will be very interesting to see if FC Tottori can change that, by winning promotion from the JFL. If it does, then the J.League will unquestionably be a truly nationwide sports league.
Yokogawa Musashino FC
|
Yokogawa football club is one of the oldest clubs in Japan, having been formed in 1939, though it has never developed beyond the status of a small company club team. Tokogawa FC entered the Kanto regional league in the 1970s, with the formation of the JSL, but the parent company appeared to waver in its support for the team from time to time. It wasnt until 1993, with the formation of the J.League, that the team established a clear direction for itself. In that year, the team entered the Kanto regional league (one level below the nationwide JFL), and set itself the goal of becoming one of the top amateur teams in the country
In1999, Yokogawa won the regional championships, and was included in the formation of the (new) JFL. The team probably could have opted to join the J.League at that time, but it appears that club officials were worried that they could not compete effectively for fans with Tokyo Gas (now FC Tokyo), which was also based in western Tokyo. Yokogawa decided to remain a company team, and its performance thereafter went downhill, steeply.
After a few years of poor results, the company seemed to have a change of heart, and began to at least provide enough financial support to make the club competitive. In 2001, the team finished 7th out of 16 teams, its best result to date. The following year, the team changed its name to Yokogawa Musashino FC, adding "Musashino" to the name, thus clarifying its local base and distinguishing itself from mearby FC Tokyo (and for that matter, Tokyo Verdy). This seems that this change has revived the club's fortunes, and if it can acquire a few more quality players, it might begin to vie for the upper reaches of the JFL. After six and a half decades of existence, perhaps the team is finally headed towards the big time.
Gunma FC Horikoshi
| ||||
Home Town:
Gunma Horikoshi is a very recently formed team, and serves as a very good example of the new wave in Japanese football. The development of clubs like Horikoshi, based on grassroots support and local / regional pride, shows how the J.League's "Hunderd Year Plan" is intended to work. Much of the football club development that is taking place in Japan today is driven by civic leaders in small towns and cities, who see that relatively minor investments of time, capital and energy can provide both a boost to the city's pride, an outlet for the energy of young people in the area, and indeed, potentially a source of economic vitality as well.
Gunma FC Horikoshi was formed in 2000, making it three years younger than its next-door neighbour, Thespa Kusatsu, yet despite this three-year head start, Horikoshi very nearly reached the J.League at the same time as Thespa. It took just three season for Horikoshi to rise from the lowest ranks of the Gunma prefectural league to the JFL, and it gained its admission in dramatic fashion with a thundering 5-0 victory over FC Kyoto Bamb in the 2003 promotion/relegation playoff.
Though 2004 was its first year in the JFL, the team finished in a respectable eighth place. Horikoshi have made it clear that their objective of J.League admission will be achieved sooner rather than later. The team acquired the aging Brazilian veteran Amaral for the 2005 season, and though he may not have the speed or skills he demonstrated in his youth, the former "King of Tokyo" is a fine player to serve as a team leader and an example for his teammates both on and off the pitch. Surely this, and some other player acquisitions, will give Horikoshi a very good chance of earning promotion to the J2 in 2005.
Tochigi SC
|
Tochigi Soccer Club was founded in 1953, under the name "Tochigi Soccer", as a local town club in the lower levels of the JSL. Though the team had no major corporate sponsor, it performed well enough to move gradually up the ranks, and when the JSL was disbanded and the J.League formed, in 1992, it entered the Kanto League, a second-level division of the JFL.
In 1994, team changed its name to Tochigi Soccer Club, or "Tochigi SC". Though not usually a top challenger in this league, team's timing was extremely good, for in 1998, when the JFL was reorganised, the team happened to win the Kanto League for the first time in many years. This won the team a spot in the top division of the "new JFL". Since then, however, the team has been one of the weaker performers.
Despite its relatively weak finishes over the past few seasons, Tochigi SC is in the favourable situation of already operating under an independent corporation structure, which qualifies it for J.League entry (assuming it can meet the other financial and organizational requirements). Moreover, it has one of the nicest "small" stadiums in Japan -- Tochigi "Green Park" Stadium -- and it is located in a relatively large regional city, far from any other J.League team. In fact, following the promotion of Thespa Kusatsu, Tochigi prefecture is currently the only Kanto-area prefecture without a J.League team. At the moment, the club is too weak in terms of footballing ability to challenge for a spot in the J2, but its finances seem to be in better condition than its roster suggests. With so many other factors in its favour, it may be just a matter of time before the club management begins taking steps to prepare the team for promotion. We certainly hope this will occur in the not-too-distant future, since it will produce an unbroken string of J.League host prefectures in the "football heartland" of Japan, from the eastern fringe of Nagano and Gifu prefectures in the southwest to the southern edge of Fukushima prefecture in the northeast.
Mitsubishi Motors Mizushima
(Mizushima Red Adamant)
|
In recent years, the team's supporters have begun calling themselves (and by association, the team), the "Red Adamant Fan Club" (a take-off on the "Red Diamonds" in Urawa . . ."adamant" is another word for diamond). This name has caught on in the local area, and there is a good chance that the team may formalise a name change on April 1, 2005, when it plans to adopt an independent organizational structure (one of the requirements of J.League membership). For the time being we will assume that this team will soon be named "Mizushima Red Adamant", though the alternative, "Mizushima Adamant", might seem even more appropriate to English-speakers.
So far there are no formal ties between the Urawa Reds and Mizushima, but company ties run deep in Japan. There are already some indications that, as Mizuzhima pursues J.League admission, they may receive some help from the Reds, along the lines of the relationship between Shimizu S-Pulse and Ventforet Kofu, or Jubilo Iwata and Shonan Bellmare. A few youth team or veteran players who are not seeing regular action with the Reds may be selected to spend an "internship" at the club in western Japan, to help it develop and advance along the road to the J.League. This would be a great boost to the J.League, since the western tip of Honshu is one of the areas that is still under-represented in terms of football clubs.
Grulla Morioka
|
However, apart from a team named Morioka Zebra, which made it to the Tohoku regional league a few years ago, Morioka did not have a club to call "the home team". In January 2004, however, the plans of city officials and local sports fans got ahuge boost when local boy Shinichi Muto took early retirement from J.League club JEF United in order to return home and take the spot as Grulla's head coach and top player. Muto probably could have played another two or three years at the J.League level, if he wanted to, so this represented a big investment on his part, in the new team. So far, it seems to be paying off. Grulla won the local league title this year, and in 2005 it will be making its bid for promotion to the Tohoku regional league. J.League ambitions are still a few years off, but any club with a logo as beautiful as Grulla's deserves to join the J.League on that merit alone. We will be looking forward to this team's rapid advance in years to come.
FC Ryukyu
|
But the dream was in fact, just a dream. The 44 year old Ramos had drawn all he could from the fountain of youth, and he proved to be as poor a manager as he now was on the pitch. After he eventally came to terms with reality, and left the club, Kariyushi went into a tailspin from which it never recovered. It was disbanded in 2004, with players all going their separate ways.
Regardless of whether Kariyushi FC was just an example of inept management, or the victim of hostile fate, the dream of sending a team from Okinawa to the J.League was far from extinguished. While Kariyushi was still in the midst of its free-fall decline, another team emerged, and has taken now over the role as the torch-carrier for Okinawan football. That club, FC Ryukyu is gaining momentum, and could soon banish the bad memory or Kariyushi FC to a historical footnote. The club's crest, alone, is worthy of a spot in the top-flight division, with its Okinawan lion-dogs, red eyes ablaze, and the boastful inscription "since 2003" (it may sound a bit like irony now, but come back in a hundred years or so . . . ).
FC Ryukyu is currently a member of the Kyushu regional league, and hopes to earn promotion to the JFL within two years. The goal of J.League promotion before 2010 may seem ambition, but assuming that the J.League does expand to a third division, perhaps it is a goal that the Okinawa club can indeed reach..
Volca Kagoshima
|
Volca Kagoshima has a relaively long history, having been formed in 1959 under the name "Kagoshima Soccer Kyoindan" (Kagoshima soccer teachers club". However, it remained a very small club in the prefectural leage for most of its history, and only began to gain interest around the time of the "soccer boom" that coincided with the launch of the J.League. In 1995, the team changed its name to "Volca", taken from the word volcano, which is apt for a city just across the bay from one of Japan's most active volcanoes. As the stadium picture shows, on days when the volcano is a bit more active than usual, one can literally sit in the stands and watch the smoke rise from the distant peak while the Volca players burn up the pitch, down below.
In 2003, Koji Maeda, a veteran defender who played for many years at Avispa Fukuoka, returned home to support the team in an administrative role, and help it gain publicity. The same year, the team made it to the playoff round for JFL admission, but fell short in the playoff competition. Even so, this result boosted the team"s local popularity, and it is likely to make another bid for JFL promotion in 2005 or 06. Kumamoto has been a hotspot for football for many years, and the local high school power, Kagoshima Jitsugyo HS, captured the national high school championship this year. That may be a good omen for the region, as it certainly has the population and local interest to support a J.League team.
Kitakyushu New Wave
|
New Wave Kitakyushu has a team name that is sure to appeal to any baby boomer. And that certainly is not the only thing that the team has going for it. The team's merits in financial, organisational and perssonel, taken as a whole, make one tempted to tip them as one of the top prospects for J.League promotion. They even have a mascot that manages to look "cute" and "tough" at the same time. Unfortunately, the only disadvantage that the team does face may be the most crucial. New Wave has the misfortune of being located in northern Kyushu, a region that three J.League teams already call home. Though Kitakyushu City is a separate urban area, it is very close to Fukuoka, home of Avispa, and Avispa itself faces competition for fans from Oita Trinita and Sagan Tosu, in the two neighbouring prefectures.
| A look at the map might suggest that New Wave Kitakyushu are facing a hopeless task in trying to build a fan base. But there is at least a chance that this impression may turn out to be incorrect. For one thing, New Wave and its mascot "WAVY", have done a very good job of generating awareness in the local area. The team is partly sponsored by a soft drinks bottling company, and among other activities to promote the team, it has set up soft drink vending machines all over the city which feature "WAVY" and the team's logos. So far, the campaign seems to be winning over many local residents. The team's performance in the Kyushu Regional League so far has been modest, yet attendances suggest that the team can hope for enough cash flow to begin acquiring better players, in the future. For the time being, we remain a bit sceptical about the prospects for yet ANOTHER team in northern Kyushu, particularly one locates do close to Fukuoka. Nevertheless, we have taken an instant liking to these new wave footballers and their vending-machine-star mascot. Perhaps there is room in the region for another wave of football development after all. |  |
AS Laranja Kyoto
|
When considering the prospects of teams that may find their prospects of J.League promotion blocked by an overcrowded regional market for fans, AS Laranja is certainly one team that faces a difficult situation. Many would argue that the city of Kyoto is incapable of supprting even one second-division team. Certainly Kyoto Purple Sanga's season-average attendances have never risen above a few thousand, even when they were a member of the top division. Nevertheless, AS Laranja is hoping that they can change peoples' minds.
The club is an offshoot of a soccer school, named Kyoto Academy of Sports (thus the "AS" in "AS Laranja"). Naturally the school has youth teams of its own, but a few years ago, teachers and graduates of the Academy who were unable to find a spot on a professional club decided to form their own adult-level team, to take part in the Kyoto prefectural league. The team's results were quite impressive, and AS Laranja quickly advanced to the top Kansai regional division. After winning the Kansai Regional title in 2004, AS Laranja announced its intention to advance a step further, and will make a bid for promotion to the JFL in 2005.
It is difficult to say whether the team's success on the pitch will translate into the sort of fan and community support needed to run a J.League club. Having said that, AS Laranja do have their own steady, in-house source of new talent, and if the youth programme can produce one or two top-notch players, J2 promotion is not out of the question. Who knows, AS Laranja may be just what is needed to finally get Kyoto residents out of the shrines and temples and into a football stadium.
The Race to Capture Nagano
|
|
|
As some of the discussions above might indicate, there are a large number of clubs in Japan that have a team and a goal, but are still trying to build a fan base. Their hopes of reaching the J.League will probably depend on whether or not they are succesful at building the grassroots support needed to sustain the club. But in at least one part of the country, exactly the opposite problem prevails. In Nagano prefecture, there is a large and dedicated fan base that is searching eagerly for a club, to which they might dedicate their loyalty.
Nagano prefecture is near the exact center of Japan, surrounded by towering mountains and blessed with an abundance of natural beauty. The only problem with this bucholic paradise is . . . theres nothing to do! Particularly for young people, living in the boondocks can be very boring indeed. And for this reason, football has quickly captured the passions of the local people. During the 2002 World Cup, Paraguay based their training camp in Matsumoto CIty, and even today you can find many shops, hotels and tourist spots with pictures on display of the (owner / manager / employees /etc) standing arm in arm with Jose Luis Chilavert, Francisco Arce, or one of the other Paraguayan star players.
Since then, several teams (including some that have been around for years) have emerged as prospective candidates for the role of "Nagano's Team", and there is little question that whichever one is first to win a spot in the J.League will inherit a huge and enthusiastic fan base. The only question is who will get there first. The prize for the victor is more than just first place in the hearts of local residents. Included in the "package" will be the right to claim Matsumoto's "Arwin" Stadium as home. As anyone who has visited the stadium knows, Arwin is one of the nicest football-only facilities in all of Japan, and though it seasts "only" 25,000, when Arwin fills up it can be a truly magnificent venue for a football match.
Initially, most people though that Nagano Elsa had the inside track. Although the team was founded just 15 years ago, it has a strong record of performance over the past decade, representing Nagano Prefecture in the Emperor's Cup on numerous occasions and winning the Nagano Prefectural title every year but one, between 1996 and 2000. In addition, Nagano has a sister-city relationship with Munich, Germany, and Elsa has hosted of several training visits by coaches from 1860 Munich, which has ties to the club.
But in recent years, two other clubs have emerged and are giving Elsa a run for its money. One is Matsumoto Yamaga FC, which was formed in 1965 and has been a major rival of Elsa for years. Yamaga has the advantae of being based in Matsumoto, a slightly larger city than Nagano, and of already playing many of its home matches at Arwin Stadium. Yamaga joined Elsa in the Hokushinetsu Regional League in 1999, and thus will also be eligible for promotion to the JFL if they can win the title in 2005. Yamaga also boasts some of the most impressive website support of any non-J.League club. In fact, not only does the official website (www.alwin.org) put many J.League clubs' efforts to shame, even the official fan club, Ultras Matsumoto, has a web site (www.nextftp.com/yamaga) that is worthy of applause. The site is only in Japanese, but even those who cannot read Japanese will find it worth a visit, if only to watch the opening Shockwave intro.
The dark horse in the race to capture Nagano is a club known, delightfully, as "FC Antelope". Though it only gained entry to the Hokushinetsu Regional League at the end of last year, FC Antelope is actually the oldest of the three clubs, having been formed in 1955 under the name "All-Nagano Teachers' Football Club". FC Antelope is also based in Matsumoto, and though it currently has a less impressive financial and organisational base than its local neighbour, Yamaga, football fans surely know that this is not always the deciding factor once the whistle blows and the players hit the pitch. In any event, we will be watching all three teams closely to see if one of them can gain promotion to the JFL at the end of 2005.
Adieu Gentil Alouette. Kumamoto Goes Red
Thus, at the end of last year, the team abandoned its "French Connection", and established a new, independent corporation named Rosso Kumamoto. So far, the only things that have been decided regarding the new club is that it will adopt red uniforms (a bow to their local fans, who seem to prefer firey colors rather than the cool blue, as their banner below should indicate), and that the coach will be former Kashiwa Reysol boss Tomoyoshi Ikeya.
Though much about the new team is undertain, one thing we do know is that they will be quite competitive. There appears to be a large amount of local money behind the team, backing their bid for a J.League spot, and though they have yet to name a roster, indications are that more than half of the players will be people with at least some past J.League experience. In 2005, Kumamoto will face off against Volca Kagoshima, New Wave Kitakyushu and FC Ryukyu, all of whom are also hoping for eventual J.League promotion. Surely the Kyushu Leage will be a hotbed off football excitement this year, for those who follow the regional leagues.
Norbritz Hokkaido
|
The financial collapse of Consadole Sapporo, despite some of the best local fan support in the league, will no doubt leave many people with the impression that the situation is gloomy for football fans in the great white north. But despite its financial troubles, Consadole continues to draw good crowds, and should eventually be able to right itself even if it doesnt regain the J1 position it once could claim.
But Consadole is far from the only story in Hokkaido football. The Hokkaido league has been gaining strength in recent years, and one team that has dominated Regional football in Hokkaido for years is planning to make a bit for J.League entry. Norbritz Hokkaido was founded in 1985, as the company team of Hokkaido Electric Power Company. Its progress was rapid, and it advanced from the Sapporo League to the Hokkaido Regional League in just four years. In 1992, Norbritz won the Regional title for the first time, and since then it has finished atop the division nine times, and never finished lower than second place.
Norbritz boasts a fairly good fan base, and though its location, very close to Sapporo (in the city of Ebetsu) forces it to compete with Consadole for fans, the area of southwest Hokkaido boasts several good stadiums, which could easily allow two teams to co-exist. Norbritz has played a few of its home matches at Muroran stadium. If the team moved permanently to the southern half of the broad plain that, including Sapporo, accomodates the majority of Hokkaido's population, it might create a local rivalry that would stimulate the growth of the sport even more. Like Consadole, the team adopted a local animal (the arctic fox) as a mascot, which has helped to emphasize the local character even more. Though some might think that the region is too sparsely populated to support two separater clubs, we believe that Hokkaido could benefit greatly from having a second J.League club, and we hope that Norbritz will continue its efforts to gain J.League promotion.
Gifu Stickleback
|
In our discussions of J.League expansion as well as general discussions of J.League history and team development, we have noted many times that different parts of the country have taken to football more readily than others. For example, we often criticise the Kansai region for its comparatively weak support of local teams. Though Gamba Osaka, Cerezo Osaka and even Kyoto Purple Sanga have all made runs at a title on one occasion or another, the local fans have been only lukewarm in their support. Nevertheless, there is at least enough interest in the region to support several teams. If any single region of Japan deserves to be singled out as a "weak spot" in the J.League's efforts to build grassroots support for football in every part of the country, it wold have to be the Tokai region, surrounding Nagoya. Though it is the third most populous region in Japan, and boasts a larger area of relatively flat, "urbasnised" countryside than the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe coridoor, Tokai manages to support just one local football team -- Nagoya Grampus.
No doubt there are some extenuating circumstances. Jubilo Iwata is located not too far away, in Shizuoka prefecture, and it seems that many football fans in Tokai have thrown their support to the perrennial championship contenders. But that is not a good enough explanation for the lack of teams in the Tokai area. Whereas Nagoya is home to just one team, Japans three other major cities -- Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama -- all claim at least two (and with Kawasaki Frontale sandwiched between the Tokyo and Yokohama metropolises, you could say that these two cities each have two-and -a-half teams). Even Saitama City, which is half the size of Nagoya, boasts two J1 clubs -- the Urawa Reds and Omiya Ardija. And that is only half the story. There are also at least a half-dozen smaller cities in other parts of the Tokai area that should be large enough to support a club.
Fortunately, it appears that the region is finally starting to make moves in this direction, as some of the smaller cities begin to develop clubs of their own, aiming for J.League promotion. The one that has received the most press in recent months has been Gifu Stickleback, located in the second major city of the Tokai region. Considering the amateurish nature of their team logo and mascot, and the fact that they have a club name with both "FC" AND "SC" in the title, you can probably guess that Stickleback was a relatively small and unheralded club until recently. But at the end of last year, the Gifu town fathers got together and decided to make a commitment to building a competitive club in their city.
The team got a huge boost when a local boy -- former Japan national team striker Yasuyuki Moriyama -- announced at the press conference held to mark his retirement from Nagoya Grampus, that he was accepting the position as Stickleback's player-coach. Though Moriyama may be getting on in years, at age 35 he still seems to be in good physical shape and will surely be able to do some scoring at the Tokai regional league level. Furthermore, there are rumours that another aging Nagoya star who was born and raised in the Tokai region, Tetuya Okamoto, could join Moriyama if Nagoya decides not to renew his contract for the 2005 season. This would be great news for all concerned, since even Grampus would benefit by having a local rival to stir up fan interest.
Shizuoka FC
|
The final entry in our report on local teams seeking J.League entry is Shizuoka FC. The team is a recent creation, having just been formed in 2001, and though it has adopted an independent organizational structure in order to qualify for J.League entry, it seems unlikely that Shizuoka prefecture can support yet ANOTHER club (though in a three-division league, who knows?) Nevertheless, we had to include this team in our report, if only because Shizuoka FC boasts what is almost certainly the coolest official team logo of any football team in Japan -- iondeed, possibly in the entire world. The understated black-and white transposition, coupled with the brilliantly rendered samurai helmet icon, is the sort of thing that most fan clubs would kill for. Can you imagine the feeling that you would get, standing in the front row of a stadium and waving a huge black flag with this logo dead centre?
Though the Rising Sun News is not normally in the habit of supporting teams from Shizuoka, in this case we simply could not resist, and ordered a key ring from the team's official web site. For those of you who share our taste for well-designed logo marks, you can order your own, if you read enough Japanese to contact the team's merchandising department (click here). In addition, we have provided an assortment of other team logos that we discovered while researching this report, below. This is just a small sample of the hundreds of football teams that are now active in Japan. The J.League's "Hundred Year Plan" certainly seems to be off to a strong start, even if it has been a "mere" decade since the League itself was born.
Send all questions, comments and queries to: