I was going through an old thread on your forum regarding the popularity of Football Vs Baseball in Japan, so I thought rather than resurrect a dead thread I'd start a new one. I'm currently writing a 3 part article for a football blog about the rise of Japanese football, and was wondering about the popularity of the game over there. How much has it come on since the world cup? What did the Asian cup victory last year do for this popularity? Players like Kagawa having success at Europe must surely be adding to the games popularity? Is it easy to watch football on TV? I'm fascinated by the development of the game in Japan, to me it's a huge success story and one to use as a blueprint to develop football in the correct manner for any country which is struggling.
You've clearly not done enough research because most of your questions are blindingly obvious, but I'll indulge you. It was popular before the World Cup, and it's popular now. There's definitely a slow but steady shift from baseball to soccer in Japan. Everyone loves their country's NT when it's doing well, and Japan's has been doing really well. Most Europe-based players have popular followings and the big ones (Nagatomo, Kagawa, Honda) regularly get endorsement deals. You can usually watch matches for your home team on free-to-air channels and once a week (give or take) NHK shows matches live. If you want to see any match live you have to subscribe to an expensive satellite TV package.
World Cup tv ratings in Japan 1998 vs. Argentina 60.5% vs. Croatia 60.9& vs Jamaica 52.3% 2002 vs. Belgium 58.8% vs. Russia 66.1% vs. Tunisia 45.5% vs. Turkey 48.5% 2006 vs. Australia 49.0% vs. Croatia 52.7% vs. Brazil 37.2% 2010 vs. Cameroon 45.2% vs. Netherlands 43.0% vs. Denmark 40.9% vs. Paraguay 57.3% Like Dokool said, the World Cup has always been popular in Japan. This is nothing new. In fact, you could possibly say that its decreased in popularity (although the time difference for the 2010 WC is probably the reason why ratings decreased). Overseas football has been in Japan for many years. The transfer of Japanese players to Germany has just changed what matches are shown in Japan. TV stations are more likely to show matches with Japanese players but the number of matches shown has not changed much. Top programs in Japan by year 2000-2011 ００年 42.3% サッカー オリンピック.. 準々決勝 「日本－アメリカ」 ０１年 38.2% サッカー コンフェデレーションズカップ. 決勝 「日本－フランス」 ０２年 66.1% サッカー ワールドカップ... 日韓大会 . 「日本－ロシア」 ０３年 31.5% 駅伝 箱根駅伝 復路 ０４年 32.4% サッカー アジアカップ. 決勝 「日本－中国」 ０５年 47.2% サッカー ワールドカップ 最終予選 「日本－北朝鮮」 ０６年 52.7% サッカー ワールドカップ ドイツ大会. 「日本－クロアチア ０７年 38.1% フィギュア 日本選手権東京 ０８年 37.3% 五輪 開会式 北京 ０９年 43.1% ボクシング フライ級タイトルマッチ 亀田×内藤 １０年 57.3% サッカー ワールドカップ 日本×パラグアイ 61.2% サッカー ワールドカップ 日本×パラグアイ 延長戦 １１年 35.1% サッカー アジアカップ 準決勝 「日本－韓国」 In 8 out of the last 11 years a football match has been the most watched program in Japan. Football has been popular for at least 2 decades now.
Some more stats 2011年視聴率（15パーセント以上） サッカ 陸上 フィギュア バレー 野球 ボクシング 相撲 体操 *1. 35.1％ 29.5％ 29.3％ 24.1％ 18.9％ 16.7％ 15.6％ 16.1% *2. 33.1％ 25.1％ 27.8％ 17.4％ 16.5％ 16.6％ 15.0％ *3. 29.0％ 17.3％ 26.7％ 16.3％ *4. 25.9％ 16.0％ 22.7％ 15.9％ *5. 25.2％ 15.7％ 21.1％ 15.5％ *6. 24.6％ 15.2％ 20.8％ 15.4％ *7. 24.3％ 20.7％ 15.0％ *8. 23.4％ 19.6％ *9. 23.3％ 19.1％ 10. 22.5％ 18.2％ 11. 22.2％ 17.7％ 12. 21.8％ 17.2％ 13. 20.9％ 16.7％ 14. 20.8％ 16.3％ 15. 20.4％ 16. 19.9％ 17. 19.7％ 18. 18.2％ 19. 17.3％ 20. 17.2％ 21. 16.6％ 22. 16.3％ 23. 15.6％ 24. 15.5％ 25. 15.3％ Programs in 2011 with over a 15% viewership share. For non-Japanese readers, 1. Soccer 2. Track and Field 3. Figure-skating 4. Volleyball 5. Baseball 6. Boxing 7. Sumo 8. Gymnastics
Thanks for the constructive replies, those translated from Japanese are quality bits of information As for those condemning my apparent lack of research on the subject, the purpose of making this thread was to gain a more personal take using opinions of Japanese football fans, rather than ask for a list of links (of which I have compiled a huge folder for anyone interested). It's one thing to base your research on news pieces and statistics, and quite another when you use primary data; and when you write an opinion piece and live in Europe, it's difficult to chat to many Japanese people. I was hoping the thread would provide an insight into the opinions of the board members. amrizzle
That's a whole buncha BS. If you really wanted insight into our opinions you would have asked smarter questions. Your original post was grade-school-level stuff.
Had the original responses been more welcoming then I would have continued to ask more probing questions. But I was met with rather passive aggressive posts for no apparent reason; other than that you judged me to have not researched enough. Imagine the responses had I prepared a long and extensive questionnaire...either none I'd wager or telling me to sod off going by the original responses. Anyway thanks for the help again, what has been given is very valuable, cheers
Its even more difficult to do that on an English-language message board. There are (from what I know) a few expatriate Japanese who visit here, but nearly all those who post frequently are foreigners living in Japan or ethnic Japanese/Asians living outside Japan. If you really wanted information from "Japanese people" you would have to ask on a Japanese message board. I have to agree with dokool, your original post was almost insulting in its lack of depth, and if those questions were any indication of the level of knowledge and research typical of your blog . . . . . well . . . on second thought, lets not go there.
Why is that? You enjoy the aroma of scorched earth in the morning? It smells like . . . . . . . victory
It is difficult to do that on here I agree. As far as our blog is concerned, we research as best we can and write pieces on a broad range of football topics, covering Africa and Asia mainly. Our main reason for blogging is that we love the game, especially on these two continents, and we want to bring a fresh viewpoint on the game from these areas in English. The aim wasn't to overwhelm with info that is difficult to digest for the vast majority of those that don't know much about these regions. We're trying to increase interest rather than drive people away, most of our blog readers don't know much if anything at all about Asian & African football, so we try to give them a wee insight without them having to invest too much time or get bogged down by endless stats. Fyi we set up less than two months ago and we have already been getting positive feedback from many other prominent bloggers including Jonathan Wilson. I don't think a bigsoccer forumites opinion is of much value to us. But then again, with some of the egos on here... For those interested in part 1: http://sandalsforgoalposts.com/2012/03/03/the-rise-rise-of-japanese-football-part-1/ Cheers amrizzle
Ill also post this here, lest he delete my comment on his actual site --------------- Good lord man, a 12-year old could have provided more insight. Among the things which make no sense whatsoever: - Why March 1988? What happened on that date to justify any sort of notice, apart from a meaningless meeting of a few suits from the JSL - which was completely powerless and meaningless relative to the JFA. There are thousands of other dates to choose that are far more defensible as a "turning point" whether it be 1981 when Mr. Mori took over as NT coach and revamped the entire focus of the JFA, or 1990's Dynasty Cup, or the most likely date of all - 11/11/93. Even May of 88, when the transition to Yokoyama Japan ushered in a generation of players who would go on to be the "stars" of the early J.League, would be a better choice. - Second, "national interest in the sport is virtually non existent." Says who? The annual national high school tournament and Emperor's Cup were two of the biggest sports events of the year, trailing only Koshien and the Japan Series in terms of public notice. When teams like AC Milan and Real Madrid came to Tokyo for the annual Toyota Cup, National Stadium sold out without fail. National interest in LEAGUE football was slight to nonexistent, but LEAGUE football was an amateur game dominated by corporate teams, so there was very little to recommend it to a "true football fan". - Your use of Captain Tsubasa as a factor completely rubbishes your choice of 1988 as a pivotal date for the sport becoming more popular. After all, Captain Tsubasa was CANCELLED that year, after a seven-year run. It was revived in 1994, which would provide a good bit of support for your argument if you had chosen 11/11/93. - Last and most important of all (for your future reference), anyone who writes an article about the early J.League, and references Gary Lineker, automatically loses 90% of their credibility with those who actually follow the J.League. Unless, of course, they mention the many people who actually made a meaningful contribution to the J.League in that era, Like Ramon Diaz, Carlos Dunga, Guido Buchwald and Careca. . . . etc etc etc I dont mean to bash you unnecessarily or spuriously, its just that you could do SO much better, without even being competent in Japanese. At least spend a bit of time doing actual research, rather than trying to write your article based on comments from a BigSoccer message board
There will be no deleting of comments-we like the interest regardless if it agrees with us or not, the main thing is people are talking about the issue. As for your points, they are perfectly valid, everyone has their own opinion of what they want to see from a post. I've responded on the site. You may not like or agree with my reasons for how the piece was written. Our blog has certain criteria, we try to keep our pieces light but informative and we do our best to fulfil this. We find long pieces make the hits trickle in, while shorter more direct pieces garner more attention. I'll let you read the response and see what you think yourself. As I say, most Asian football fans may already know all of that and more besides, but we don't aim to preach to the choir. The vast majority of our readers follow the EPL, some other Euro leagues and African football. To them, that's probably the most they have ever or will ever read about Japanese football (that may depress you), but to me it's getting Asian football out there, and that's the aim. Cheers amrizzle
I'm really just offended at the poor grammar throughout the piece, on top of the fact that it reads like someone who did exactly what you've done: research all of the important points by rote instead of taking the time to figure out what actually went on. This blog is what you'd expect from a high school student asked to write a paper on soccer's rise in Japan: it may be technically correct but it's clear that the writer has no inherent knowledge of or passion for the subject, and it's disingenuous to think that this drivel is what's going to get people interested in Japanese football.
I don't want to add to the diatribe as I didn't find much wrong with your original post asking for input from people you guessed might be more knowledgeable on the subject, but had my attention caught by this line. What is the point of your blog? To try and inform people about lesser known leagues in Africa/Asia, or get a bunch of hits with light articles which require little research or commitment from the reader? Both are satisfactory targets, but potentially not compatible. You've name-dropped Jonathan Wilson who has made a career by moving away from SHOOT! magazine style snippets and into fastidiously researched, more intellectually demanding articles. I'd encourage you to keep going as I've (happily) stumbled upon J-League due to geographical proximity and would recommend it to anyone, but have seen many websites on the topic start and then stop within a year.
I need something similar to japanesefootballersaroundtheglobe.blogspot.com again plzzzzzzzzzzzzz I think it was a very good way to increase more popularity of Japanese Football... as of now, after he close down the website I am stuck with knowing only Yamamura and Higa from u-23 (because the blog mentioned it) ... the rest, no idea... lemme know if there is other website, in english
Our http://sandalsforgoalposts.com/about/ page will answer your question regarding our blog. As it states, we are a bunch of students/professionals with demanding jobs. We do a variety of articles including light hearted ones and more deeply researched ones. Funnily enough, the feedback we've had so far has been very positive. Although it has come from the African side of things. It seems Asian football fans in general are far more easily aggrieved for some reason, possibly because the Asian game has so little interest from outwith the continent itself relative to African football. This may lead to a more insular fan base. But who knows?! Thanks for the encouragement though. It's nice to see some on the Asian side are looking on the positive side of things. To me it's more important to garner attention for the Asian game and get people thinking about Asian football rather than have 2000 word articles thrown at them. They just won't bother that way. As I mentioned before, if there was a bigger demand for Asian articles with far more content, then we'd look at providing something. But for instance, when we wrote a piece about Egypt, it received far more hits and positive feedback, even though to most who have commented negatively it would have been seen as "poorly researched". I think there's a difference between poor research and being selective about what part of the information you want to include. As far as J Wilson is concerned, part of his resume includes and is not exclusive to more in depth pieces. He still writes for your bog standard UK newspapers which generally do not publish a thesis on the Champions League final or whatever was being played that weekend. Hope this helps and thanks again for the encouragement I'll do my best to ignore your patronising overtones and converse in a decent manner. We have had feedback on this piece and other pieces on our blog from many people, and they generally have found them interesting, even on this very forum. Goes to show that there are people out there (quite a number I'd imagine), with little to no knowledge of Asian football, who would find such a piece informative. Whether or not it fulfils your criteria for being well researched, well written or informative is another matter altogether. Nowhere on our blog do we claim to be the one stop blog for all things Asian & African. Nor will you find such a place if you have been looking. Finally thanks for showing an interest, regardless of that interest begin positive or negative Cheers amrizzle
Dude, did you come here to inform or to insult? You can't call us insular and then complain about perceived patronizing overtones. Being humble goes a long way to engendering goodwill in Asian cultures. I suggest you think about that and get back to us.
I'm Asian too man. I wasn't trying to insult anyone by my comment, I just think we are generally more insular as football fans on our continent as a whole be it East or West Asia. Just an opinion, not attempting to put down Asia. Anyway I think this thread has veered way off course and this will be my last participation on here. Cheers amrizzle
I would like to nominate this thread for the Bizarre Hall of Fame, along with the I want to play football in Japan thread.
For a research project on soccer, I need some data on the Asian Soccer, mainly the estimated nº of fans (Japan, Malaysia and Korea), amount of TV rights, merchandising values and other info. I would be very grateful for your help. You can send to nunoarpinto@gmail.com
There's plenty of such data available in this forum and other places such as Wikipedia. Try those first before you ask for handouts.
I have searched in Wiki and other sites, but there´s not much about it That´s my problem... Internet is so big, that has too much info!! Can anyone help me? nunoarpinto@gmail.com many thanks...