As the J. League season kicks off, Japan Times soccer (*cough* football) correspondent Dan Orlowitz tells us what makes the Japanese game so exciting to watch and what we can expect from the upcoming season.
In its chosen hashtag for the season (#2020の主役は誰だ), the J. League literally asks "who will play the lead role in 2020?" That's never exactly been an easy question to ask, but it's become especially difficult in recent years. The league's supply of reliable stars has ...
After a record-setting 2019 season that saw larger crowds than ever attending games from Hokkaido to Okinawa, the J. League is committed to keeping both its fans and players safe. Following a similar request to reporters covering last weekend's Super Cup at Saitama Stadium, media ...
COVID-19 has already had an outsized effect on Asian soccer, forcing the relocation of a women's Olympic qualifying group to Australia from Wuhan, China, as well as the rescheduling and then postponement of Asian Champions League games involving Chinese clubs. In South Korea, fans attending ...
It took Vissel Kobe 25 seasons to win their first trophy. The second one took just 90 minutes — and a penalty shootout that will, for better or for worse, go down in Saitama Stadium history. After a 3-3 draw against Yokohama F. Marinos in Saturday's ...
Under normal circumstances, the Japan Football Association would prefer that its referees be conductors, blending into the background and occasionally providing a guiding whistle as the players take center stage. But after a 2019 season that saw match officials thrust into the national spotlight, 2020 ...
The Japan Sumo Association is putting its considerable weight behind the 2020 Tokyo Games as it looks to use the international extravaganza to promote the country's national sport. On Tuesday at the famed Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, the JSA formally announced plans for Grand Sumo, ...
It's not even February, and a J. League team has been eliminated from the Asian Champions League. Following Melbourne Victory's 1-0 win at Kashima Stadium on Tuesday, Kashima Antlers became the first Japanese team ever to bounce out of the continental competition's playoff stage. While the ...
With just half a year to go until the Summer Olympics, Japan head coach Hajime Moriyasu is running out of time and sympathy. Moriyasu, the first coach to take charge of both the Samurai Blue and Olympic squads since Philippe Troussier in 1999, has come ...
When newly minted FC Cincinnati striker Yuya Kubo makes his MLS debut in March, few will be more eager to welcome him than Tsubasa Endoh. The Toronto FC midfielder, who in 2016 became the first Japanese player selected in the MLS SuperDraft, told From the ...
