Japanese Rules: Why the Japanese Needed Football and How They Got It

Who needs football? A little over 10 years ago the Japanese decided they did. After treating it as an irrelevant sport for over 100 years they launched a national project aimed at enrolling themselves as one of the world's football powers. In true Japanese style, they were determined to get everything right and money was the least of their problems. When the professional J.League was set up in 1993, it was hyped and financed by some of the country's most high-profile organisations, while world stars such as Zico and Gary Lineker added colour. Foreign coaches from Arsene Wenger to Ossie Ardiles were brought in to pass on their experience, and Japanese players wanting greater immersion headed for Europe and South America to learn for themselves. Even the fans studied, scrutinising the crowds in satellite TV broadcasts to learn the best way to support their teams. But, Japan didn't just want a new professional sports league to provide entertainment. Football was a way to change the country itself, to make it more like what the Japanese call the world - the world outside Japan. Football would make the Japanese internationally-minded, creative, expressive - everything they were not, b