Play and Pay

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In the highly tribal atmosphere that characterizes competition football, fans of different teams rarely care to admit that they might have something in common. Yet recently, supporters of Japanese J-League sides Urawa Red Diamonds, Cerezo Osaka and Gamba Osaka have indeed found themselves on common ground, over an uncommon event — losing a player to the high-profile, highly competitive European leagues.

Last Monday, Gamba Osaka's star midfielder Junichi Inamoto, 21, joined English Premier League giants Arsenal in a deal worth a reported $5.5 million. The week before, Bolton Wanderers, another Premier League side, took Cerezo Osaka's Akinori Nishizawa, 25, on a 10-month loan. Across the North Sea, Urawa Reds' midfielder Shinji Ono, 21, signed a reported $4 million deal with first division Dutch side Feyenoord. In Italy, A.C. Parma paid league champion A.S. Roma a cool $26 million for the services of Hidetoshi Nakata; the 24-year-old midfielder, now firmly established in Italian football, previously played for Perugia.

Although sorry to see their favorites go, Japanese fans are proud of what the exodus represents. "Japanese football is entering a new era," crows Takehiko Ito, managing editor of Tokyo's weekly Soccer Magazine. Arsenal's French manager ArsÈne Wenger, who coached J-League side Nagoya Grampus Eight from 1995 to '96, agrees. "It's time for a Japanese player to do well in the Premier League," he told the daily Yomiuri.
A decade ago, the prospect of a Japanese invasion of European football would have been laughable. There were some one-off success stories, such as Yasuhiko Okudera, who played in various divisions in Germany from 1977 to '86, and Kazuyoshi Miura, who appeared for Brazil's Santos and Italy's Genoa in the 1990s. But Japan did not even have its own independent professional circuit until 1993 when the J-League was launched.

In the past few years, however, the country's football fortunes have been on the rise. In 1998, the national team made it to the World Cup finals for the first time. This year, Japan became Asian Champion and narrowly lost the final of the Confederation Cup to world champion France.

Those successes point to the growing prowess of the country's players. But that might not be the only reason
European clubs are eyeing the J-League for recruits. A more cynical view among football commentators is that the Premier League's newfound appetite for Japanese footballers has as much to do with balance sheets as it does ball skills. Having a Japanese player on the squad could yield a club rich revenues in broadcast deals and merchandise sales in Japan. When West Ham United, an English side, unsuccessfully attempted to sign Gamba Osaka's Tsuneyasu Miyamoto earlier this year, then-manager Harry Redknapp quipped: "I think we've already sold 200,000 shirts in Japan on the back of it. By the time we've finished I could have enough money to buy Rivaldo."

Case in point: Nakata, who even before he kicked a ball in Parma's blue-and-yellow colors, made a good start for the club. On the day he signed up, Parma inked a contract to sell 10,000 Nakata jerseys in Japan. Every Parma match will be broadcast live in Japan on the Sky PerfecTV cable channel, netting more revenues for the Italian club.

The lure of the yen is irresistible for English clubs under financial pressure from rising player salaries and keen to take their brands and their merchandise outside their saturated home market. The Premier League estimates that of the 440 million people globally who have access to televised games, more than one-third are in the Asia-Pacific region. Some clubs already have established followings in Asia. Liverpool and Manchester United both have played friendly matches in the region this month.

But if their earning potential makes Japanese players more of a drawcard for European clubs, it won't take them far on the field of play. Striker Shoji Jo learned that lesson in Spain last season when he got precious few chances to turn out for Real Valladolid C.F. Still, even if they spend long periods on the substitutes' bench, exposure to the more competitive European leagues can only be to the advantage of Japanese footballers as their country prepares for its next major soccer challenge, co-hosting the 2002 World Cup. And if the players help some European clubs sell more T shirts along the way, so be it.