ABSTRACT
Japan has often been regarded as being incompatible with Western societies. This is mainly due to a mutual lack of communication. Japan, which closed its doors to foreigners in its feudal era, possibly had fewer cross-cultural contacts in the past than any of the European nations whose citizens ventured all over the world. However, due to globalization, Japanese people have been aware that they are absorbing foreign cultures. The Japanese have been seeking ways of achieving global recognition. Sports are perceived as having a role to play in this process. The Japan League, or J-League, is a professional football league that was formed in 1993. It followed the model of European football clubs in being based on community level organizations. The Japanese organizers called the plan ‘The Hundred Year Construction’. Japan had fallen behind European football standards and this long-term plan was the way it would catch up. Although football had been imported into Japan around a hundred years ago, clubs in Japan did not develop in the way they did in Europe. The best footballers belonged to elite sports schools or club teams sponsored by large enterprises. The popularity of football was therefore restricted to certain spheres. The ordinary people, who had nothing to do with such schools or company clubs, were ignored. It was intended that the J-League would fill the ‘hundred year’ gap since football was first introduced into Japan. It wanted to make football one of the most popular sports among the public as a whole.
