SPORTS-JAPAN: World Cup Enlivens Conservative Society

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jun 7 2002 (IPS) - Yukio Kato, a company manager who has never been a soccer fan, rushes home these days to watch the World Cup on television every evening.

“A year ago, soccer was farthest from my mind. But now I have to admit I am sold on the game,” says the 54-year-old balding executive, who played baseball when he was in high school.

Kato is one of Japan’s growing converts to soccer, a trend stemming from Japan’s co-hosting with South Korea of the ongoing 2002 World Cup. A soccer fever has indeed gripped the nation.

The interest has been so keen that Tokyo, a bustling city of 12 million, was reduced to a ghost town on Jun 4, the night the Japanese team played against Belgium.

“I just stayed at the office that evening because I would not have been able to make it in time if I went home,” says Kato. “The whole office just stayed glued to the television to watch the match, and it was so exciting,” he adds.

Television stations report that the match had a viewership rating of almost 60 percent, the second highest rating in Japan after 68 percent for a women’s volleyball match in the 1968 Olympics.

The unprecedented appeal of soccer, a game considered as relatively new in Japan compared to the more popular baseball, has also sparked a debate on the impact of the sports event on the country.

While there is no doubt that the World Cup has been a source of national pride for both Japan and South Korea, many are asking whether it would generate the level of income organisers have promised or at least envisaged from the month-long games.

The games are projected to bring some 20 billion U.S. dollars into the Japanese economy, according to some press reports, a level many doubt as reports of business losses begin to trickle in.

The Japanese press said huge losses have been recorded as a result of ticketing delays and jammed computer. An unexpected 20,000 seats were left empty in the first two games alone at the Sapporo Dome.

There are no official statistics on how much Japan has invested in this sport event, but the Japan Organising Committee for the 2002 FIFA World Cup requested each local city government hosting the games to provide an initial investment of 1 billion yen (8 million U.S. dollars) for building sports facilities.

But the costs have since spiralled, and many local governments have complained that they have spent beyond their original budgets.

“I am tired of the World Cup,” says a Sapporo bar owner, who reports that customers dropped one-third this week following the furore over hooligans that has brought thousands of police to patrol the city.

The World Cup has also infused a different culture into conservative and rigid Japan, say analysts.

“The younger generation views soccer as a smart sport. It symbolises individuality and freedom, which has instant appeal for youth,” explains Tamotsu Sengoku, head of the Juvenile Research Institute, a quasi-governmental research organisation.

Members of Japan’s soccer team sport a variety of fashionable hair styles, many of them with dyed hair, one player sporting bright red mane and even flashy jewelry.

In sharp contrast to national stoicism, Japanese footballers play to the crowd, creating rapport with them especially when scoring goals. Japanese soccer fans, on the other hand, are themselves cutting unprecedented colorful figures and their cheering gets wilder by the day.

In comparison, the local baseball team appears staid, with players sporting shaven heads and serious looks, physical attributes experts note are closer to conservative Japanese values.

Sengoku believes, though, that soccer has been beneficial to the younger generation.

“I am not worried about Japan losing its traditional sports such as sumo wrestling. These sports will stay, but at the same time soccer has brought to Japan the joy of expressing one’s emotions and being an individual, which is healthy for our society,” he explains.

Keikio Ochiai, well-known television and radio commentator and a peace activist, agrees but also says the current festivity symbolises a missed opportunity for Japan.

“The World Cup could have been a time for Japan to re-think its historical colonisation of the Korean peninsula, create a debate on such issues as human rights and globalisation as we have the world’s richest teams gather in the country,” she points out.

She adds these issues have been played down with the focus on festivity.

Overall though, Ochiai says the co-hosting of the World Cup has helped to foster warmer bilateral relations between Japan and South Korea, as the games have encouraged people from both countries to get to know each other.