Japan aims to boost women's football by hosting the 2031 World Cup

In 2011, Japan emerged victorious in the competition, but in recent years, Europe has witnessed a surge in the popularity of women's football, overshadowing Japan's previous success.

“We would like to raise the value of women’s football here,” Japan Football Association (JFA) president Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said at the JFA headquarters in Tokyo, in front of a giant photo of Japan’s World Cup-winning team.

Miyamoto was captain of the Japan men’s team when they co-hosted the World Cup with South Korea in 2002, a tournament that helped spark huge interest in football among the Japanese public.

Now 47, he took over as JFA chief in 2024 and has similar hopes for the 2031 Women’s World Cup. The Asian country has never hosted the event.

But Japan is likely to face stiff competition for hosting rights with a joint bid from the United States and Mexico expected. England and China are also reportedly interested.

“We have the WE League, and it has been struggling to gather an audience,” Miyamoto added.

“We would like to increase the number of women players here.”

The professional women’s WE League launched in 2021 but it has failed to attract anything like the attendances and revenue enjoyed by women’s leagues in Europe and the United States.

Japan’s women have also not gone beyond the World Cup quarter-finals since they lost to the US in the 2015 final.

Miyamoto also said that Japan “could have done better” to capitalise on the 2011 triumph, which triggered massive interest in women’s football before it quickly fizzled out.

The former defender wants Japan to develop a more passionate football culture all round, saying his stint with Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg “inspired me a lot”.

“They have their own culture, they have football in their daily lives,” he said.

“We haven’t built that kind of community here in Japan. I’d like to make football our culture in Japan.”

Miyamoto played 71 times for his country, captaining the side at both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.

He spent most of his career in the domestic J. League, at a time when only a handful of Japan internationals played for European clubs.

Japanese players are now all over Europe and the men’s national team have benefitted as a result, regularly appearing in the World Cup knockout rounds.

“It’s very normal for them to play in the Champions League,” Miyamoto said of the current generation of players.

“When facing big teams like Germany or Spain... they have no fear.”

The steady stream of players to Europe has helped Japan’s national team but also posed problems for J. League clubs.

Miyamoto said they need to keep producing talent but argues that “transfer fees for Japanese players are low compared to players from South America”.

Brighton & Hove Albion paid just £2.5 million (S$4.3 million) to sign winger Kaoru Mitoma in 2021, while prolific goalscorer Kyogo Furuhashi joined Celtic for £4.5 million the same year.

“In Europe clubs are very strong, but in Japan clubs are not that strong,” added Miyamoto.

“Players who only have six months left on their contract are still playing in official matches. After the season, they will be free to go anywhere, and in that case, clubs can’t get any money.”

At the end of the day, Miyamoto wants to bring a new way of thinking to Japanese football.

He is a graduate of the Fifa Master sports executive programme and also had a stint coaching J. League side Gamba Osaka. He is the first JFA president to have played at a World Cup, and the youngest since the end of World War II.

“Former players, especially players who played at a high level, know how the football world works,” he said.

“Forty-seven is not young as a person. (But) talking about leaders of national organisations, maybe 47 is young. Maybe a new generation might be able to bring something new into this world.” AFP