yeah very weird i was checking him up ...the prob is that i can't read japanese but he is in the Yokohama F Marinos Youth team and he is in the U-18 J squad whenthey are going to this tournament in Croatia
he is the son of Marinos goalkeeper coach Dido Havenaar, who came from Holland and played in the J-League for a while.
well yeh he must be a citizen to be on Japan's national team. Whether he has dual citizenship or not I don't know. And I don't know if he is full-blooded Dutch but maybe if you have a good pic you could tell.
Both of his parents are ethnically Dutch(or tall, white European at least), and have Japanese citizenship. Mike is also a Japanese citizen. About dual citizenship, he must choose his citizenship(Japan or Holland) by the age of 21, according to the citizenship law of Japan.
really? thanks for the info...i doubt he would wanna play for japan if his on a dual citizenship thingo but...but if he does that's cool
There are many thousand naturalised Japanese in Japan now. I understand that some people still have an incorrect impression that Japan is a "racially pure" country but that is no longer even a reasonable generalization. In addition to the dozens of Korean and CHinese who were born in Japan and thus could play for the Japan NT if they chose to do so, there are also dozens (maybe hundreds) of half or fully "gaijin" players nowadays especially at the youth and JFL levels. In addition to the many half (or full) Brazilians who most people have heard of, as well as Robert Cullen (half Irish) and Havenaar (fully European) Mano Nakao is half Malaysian and plays in the J2. Tomi Shimomura (Cerezo Osaka) is half Swiss, and Tokyo Verdy has two young players who were born and raised in Okinawa but are of Arabic descent (Osama and Ali El-samuni). There are lots of others in the youth ranks. Time to retire your old stereotypes. Japan is as much a multicultural country, now as places like Germany or Australia (though not as much as maybe France or the US). You will see lots more white, brown and tan faces in Japan NT uniforms in the future so time to get used to it.
yeah i knew cullen was half...and alex was full but i wasn't sure about Havenaar...but thanks for the info....Matsu, yep thanks for teh info i knew Japan was multicultural I'm not lying too!
he does seem to look japanese in a way. you guys are lucky, id love to have a half korean and half other race kinda player in our NT santos is awesome.. wed be more than happy to "borrow" him from you
aww...now that you have replied to reefurs post and Havenaar is there...HE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH CUTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! i swear...damn you let my hormones jump up and down...and it's bad enough coz i am on PMS mode.. Hanul..yeah...you can borrow him for a sec...and i said BORROW...not take
Ariel ESCUDERO(URAWA.R,Argentine/Spain) http://www.urawa-reds.co.jp/Team/Players/s_a_escudero.html Osama ELSAMNI(Tokyo.V,Egypt) http://magubbs.hp.infoseek.co.jp/gazo/yusu/2003/2005/osama.jpg Ali ELSAMNI(Tokyo.V,Egypt) http://f12.aaa.livedoor.jp/~vyouth/meiari.jpg They also say that they want also to play in JapanNT in the future. ESCUDERO has been elected to U-15 ArgentineNT,and Osama ELSAMNI has been elected U-17 EgyptNT before.
OK OK No need to be so touchy. I take your point and thank you for educating me. But as multicultural as Australia? no i dont think so. A quarter of australians were born overseas and something like another third are first generation migrants. Can't answer for Germany and the rest...but I must assert my silly national pride on this one.
I was referring to multiethnicity, which is nott quite the same thing. I know that there are Australians from just about every country in Europe and I know that many of them still maintain strong identities. But that wasnt what I meant. At the end of the day, theyre still all the same "race". The number of Asians, Blacks (not including aboriginals) and so on is not what wou would call "low", but face it, George Gregan and Rocopoko are the only non-white Australians on the rugby NT, and the football NT is even more "white" than that. Have you EVER had a black, aboriginal or asian NT member? If so I cant remember any. Japan already has half a dozen non-Asian NT members at various age levels. The point is, both of you were going on and on about "what is this guy with a white face and a European name doing on the Japan NT" as if it is some sort of "weird" thing (both of you actually used that word). My point is that if such a thing surprises you, it shows that your thinking is out of date. Hey, I didnt call you a racist or something like that. Im just pointing out that your assumptions about Japan are not accurate Japan is increasingly multiethnic, and it isnt just in the major cities. I live in a tiny little town in central Japan, population about 9,000, and apart from myself (blond-hair/blue eyed Japanese) there is a guy who was born in Holland with three half-Dutch "Japanese" kids, two ethnic brazilian families and one ethnic Iranian guy all of whom are Japanese citizens (and Im not counting numerous ethnic Chinese or Koreans because they are all still Asian, and thus comparable to the different types of white Australians) Go to Tokyo nowadays and you will see non-Japanese faces everywhere. True, most of them are just there as expats or tourists, but the number who have taken Japanese citizenship is rising every year. In Sydney, no doubt that would be similar, but how "multiethnic" would you expect from a small town in Tasmania or the Northern Territories?