World Cup Country Profiles - Japan

Daisuke Ohata. Ever heard of him? What about David Campese? What if I told you that Ohata has more test tries than Campese?

That’s right the holder of the record for most test tries is Japanese. And you know what else? He’s captaining their World Cup squad! That’s right you may get to see the world’s greatest try scorer score another.

But Ohata is not the only reason to be excited about the Japanese. They play a very exciting rugby style. It’s expansive and fast, modeled, I believe, on the French style of play (without the punching). The only problem is that they aren’t very good at it.

New coach (and kiwi legend) John Kirwan has declared his intention from the outset to pursue a Japanese brand of rugby which expresses the "Samurai Spirit", and he wants to win at least two games in RWC 2007. However, if the 2007 Pacific Nations Cup is anything to go by (see the table here), the Japanese have a bit of work to do.

I traveled to Tokyo last year and the one thing I can definitely say about the Japanese is that they are enthusiastic. The quietest time was 2am on a Tuesday morning and the streets were still not empty. The Japanese have so much energy that you begin to suspect they are actually cyborgs powered by little micro-reactors, and let’s be honest, its Japan it could be true. They work 9 hours a day, they drink until they can barely walk, they play pachinko like there’s a point to it and then they go scream themselves hoarse at sports. The Japanese are the ones who put the “fanatic” back into “fan” (you know what I mean).


No one, unfortunately, expects Japan to get past the pool stage of this World Cup (not the case back in the late 80’s when they could match/beat Wales and Scotland). But they could run a few teams close like Fiji or Canada and they could offer an upset over Wales, given the recent Welsh form. The new policy at the JRFU is ATQ or Advance To The Quarterfinals. Which is where they want the team to be in 2011. So we'll have to wait. Of course by then the Japanese may exist solely on some immense neural-network while androids replace the physical players.


So what should you look out for? That man Daisuke Ohata, possessor of the Samurai Spirit.

Japan can expect big problems first up when they take on Australia in Lyon on September 8. On the 12th they play Fiji in Toulouse, on the 20th, then they meet Wales in Cardiff (assuming the foot and mouth thing calms down) on the 20th. Japan round out their cup with Canada on the 25th in Bordeaux.