So, I've been reading that J-League has been struggling to grow lately (does anybody have a list of the attendance for the last 10 years?). I guess this is expected since the hype from 2002 has started to wear off gradually. How much impact will Japan advancing to the 2nd round have on the J-League do you think? It was good to see Japan advance, as the J-League probably needs all the help that it can get.
Also, Honda has looked stellar for Japan. It will be interesting to see how the remainder of his career plays out in Europe.
I don't think attendance matters so much as other aspects like the competitiveness of the league. It will definitely help that aspect, as not only will Japanese players receive more interest from other, perhaps larger clubs, but it could bring more interest from other players who could see the strength in the national team - and that so many of them actually play in Japan - and realise it could help both raise their profile and improve their game. The more interest, and the better the players coming in, the better the development. It could also lead to better sponsorship deals, more money coming in, and better facilities. But that could very well be a stretch, considering the 2002 World Cup already contributed to that kind of progression.
I've seen some celebration videos (Roppongi) and read some articles about the celebration after beating Denmark. How do the celebrations compare to when Japan won the World Baseball Classic?
... lol ... As for "struggling to grow"... JLeague has 2 divisions of professionals including some 37 clubs (and adding more from JFL regularly.) Japan and China are the only major leagues in the region with enough professional clubs to do promotion/relegation. Jleague also has the highest avg attendance in the region and higher than... say... MLS. Which has half the number of clubs with 3 times the population. And higher than China which has god knows how many times the population. It's been and continues to be very successful. Could it be better? Sure. Will the NT result help some? Probably, but not in the way you're thinking about it. There is already a very solid supporter base for soccer in Japan. It might get a slight bump for a year, but that's not where any real benefits would come from.
j1 2000 - 11,065 2001 - 16,548 2002 - 16,368 2003 - 17,351 2004 - 18,965 2005 - 18,765 2006 - 18,292 2007 - 19,081 2008 - 19,278 2009 - 19,126