Football gradually takes root in Japan
AFP
TOKYO, May 21: Four years after debuting for the World Cup, the soccer stadium in Niigata, a quiet midsized Japanese city with forbidding winters, is still packed to its 42,300-seat capacity.
Crowds that barely knew the sport a generation ago dress up in Albirex Niigata's orange jerseys for Saturday home matches and roar thunderously as their team go on the attack.
It is part of the slow but gradual infiltration of soccer into the culture of a country where -- despite the excitement over next month's World Cup -- baseball firmly remains the national pastime.
"When we launched Albirex in 1999, we were operating in red ink," club official Sho Yamada said.
"Since the World Cup, though, we have become profitable, with our stadium always filled nearly to its capacity," he said.
Niigata "Big Swan" Stadium was built for the last World Cup, which was co-hosted by South Korea, and witnessed the likes of English superstar David Beckham.
Soccer provided Niigata with its first professional sporting club, as the baseball leagues have bypassed this city of 800,000 people.
But in much of Japan, the excitement over the 2002 World Cup has quickly faded. Baseball has enjoyed a resurgence since Japan's come-from-behind victory in March in the World Baseball Classic, an inaugural 16-nation tournament modelled on the World Cup.
"The soccer fever in me was pretty intense during the last World Cup, but I haven't seen any soccer since then," Tokyo businesswoman Yukiko Mizutani said.
While the Asian champions' World Cup bid in Germany has made front-page news in Japan, Mizutani shrugged it off.
"I don't mind watching soccer if I am bored," she said.
To attract someone like Mizutani to football, the J-League -- the professional soccer league launched in 1993 -- is looking in the long term.
After the mega-boost of the World Cup, the J-League is looking to nurture football culture by building bonds between clubs and local communities.
It is a deliberate contrast to Japanese baseball, whose teams are mostly named after corporate owners and saw its fan base slide in 2004 after an unprecedented players' strike.
"All the craze and instant fans have disappeared from the last World Cup. But we are seeing the emergence of many small football clubs, even in remote, local communities, where football had never been popular," said Fuyumi Sato, a board member of the non-profit Japan Supporters Association.
"It might take another century for Japan to really nurture its football culture and see the sport taking firm roots here. The key is whether these new clubs can let their supporters have hopes and dreams -- the possibility of growing to be international outfits," he said.
But those dreams can be a double-edged sword.
Top Japanese players are opting to join European clubs, especially after the 2002 World Cup, even if they only wind up as substitutes.
"The J-League is left with few superstar players. That makes it difficult for the league to attract new fans. Sponsors may also become reluctant to support domestic teams if stars are leaving," said football fan Tomoya Abe, a Tokyo businessman.
"Maybe Japanese people generally feel football is still a foreign sport," he said.
The national team, featuring Europe-based stars such as Bolton's Hidetoshi Nakata and Celtic's Shunsuke Nakamura, draws high television ratings. The J-League also initially benefitted by attracting legends such as Brazil's Zico, who now coaches the national team.
"For the general audience, football's international nature is the main attraction," said Itaru Kobayashi, a sociology professor at the Edogawa University who used to be a professional baseball player.
But domestic league games get only sporadic air time, compared with the daily television broadcasts and plentiful newspaper space devoted to baseball.
In 2000, 11,065 people attended the average J-League game. Four years after the World Cup, that number has shot up to 18,873.
Even with baseball's recent woes, the average attendance at a game of the Central League, the more popular of the two professional divisions, is 27,000.
And few expect Japan to get another chance to repeat the national rejoicing after winning the World Baseball Classic.
Japan have been drawn into tough Group F at the World Cup with title holders Brazil, Australia and Croatia.
"We are different from the Japanese team winning the World Classic Baseball," Japan Football Association chairman Saburo Kawabuchi said recently.
"The possibility of Japan winning the World Cup is one in 10,000," he said.
"It's not zero, though."
AuthorTopic: Football gradually takes root in Japan (Read 186 times)
May 17, 2006, 01:12:59 PM