This was all well and good, until an economic crisis hit the Land of the Rising Sun in 1997. Within three years of the professional league’s first game, Japan rocketed up to 21st in the international rankings and weekly crowds were averaging nearly 20,000. Naturally, with players of this quality stepping onto Far Eastern shores, the standard of football across the league improved. They included Zico, Dunga and Gary Lineker. But as the Asian economy was throbbing around the start of the J League, ambitious clubs were attracting world-famous – mostly Brazilian – footballers, albeit in the latter stages of their careers, to play for them. Prior to the all-new league’s inception, Japan were languishing below 40th in the FIFA world rankings and the crowds attending domestic matches were equally as poor as the stadia on show. It was hardly surprising it was amateur, after all.

Although the league reached its peak around the time Japan won bronze in the sport at the 1968 Olympics, the nation’s interest faded and attendances were on a downward slope. So, over almost three on, is Japan on schedule to match their ambition? One positive sign is that the growth of the sport across the nation has seen interest in their two most popular sports, sumo wrestling and baseball, dwindle.īefore the football boom across Japan, the amateur league – the Japanese Soccer League – had only been around for 30 years, until it was replaced by its successor. The dream was to have a successful, sustainable league, one to be proud of – to have a hundred professional clubs, and lastly, to win the World Cup by 2092.

Japan now had its own professional football league that one day would become the best in Asia. In 1991, Japanese football was at its lowest point. Their top flight was played by amateurs and the football association knew something needed to be done.

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