ABSTRACT
A year after the 2002 World Cup Korea/Japan, football still featured prominently in television and the print media – even though it was European football. Keeping pace with global trends in the football world, the Japanese mass media has come to focus its attention on the UEFA Champions League, the European football market and national leagues, rather than on Japan’s own national league (the J.League). At the same time, it has become increasingly evident that ever-rising numbers of football clubs in European countries have realised Asia’s potential as an incipient, huge football market and started to extend their marketing activities to the Far East.
