Professional women's football is reaching all corners of the world. If a new era begins in Spain next season with the constitution of the first professional league in history, a similar initiative has just been announced in Japan.
Ten years after the triumph of the 'Nadeshiko ’ At the World Cup, Japanese women's football has withered but the launch of a first professional league gives hope for a new rebirth. The Asian country currently occupies 10th place in the FIFA women's world rankings, far behind the United States, against which Japan won in the 2011 World Cup final, although it is a hopeful position that seeks to go further.
Japan returned to the final four years later, although they lost to the Americans and in 2019 they left the World Cup in the second round. As for the Olympics, they collected silver in London'2012 but they did not qualify for Rio’2016 and in Tokyo they have few options against the American giant of Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan.
“We had a sense of urgency, because we felt that Japan would be overwhelmed globally if it did not professionalize now,” he told the AFP Kikuko Okajima, president of the WE League, the new Japanese women's league.
Okajima he hopes this professional league will attract more viewers in a country where attendance is much lower compared to the United States. The number of licensed footballers only 3.3% of the total. In order to Emi Yamamoto, midfielder for Chifure AS Elfen Saitama, one of the 11 teams in the new League, the non-professionalization of women's football in Japan explains why the sport has not really progressed for ten years.
“Until now it was difficult to think of sustaining itself through football alone. The fact of becoming a professional will show the youngest that you can make a living, give them a goal, be a reason for admiration ”, estimates the 39-year-old.
Many Japanese women have thus acquired the habit of playing abroad to earn a living from their careers, such as Emi Yamamoto, who has played for several years in the United States and Italy. “We have to raise the level, make the League one of the best in the world, and then the players will want to stay and others will come from abroad,” he hopes.
“A better level of the league will increase that of the national team, and if we can establish a virtuous circle, we will certainly see Nadeshiko on top of the world in the near future,” he concludes.