Japanese football is not just manga

Shingo Tamai is the star of the “Akakichi no Irebun”, soberly called “The red blood eleven”: this is the first manga dedicated to football in the wake of the sensational placement of Japan (bronze) at the Mexico City Games ’68. Here the series becomes “Arrivano i Superboys” and is broadcast on Italia 1 in the 1980s. Suburbs of Tokyo, Shingo Tamai is a rebel high school student, we go on between brawls and endless games studded with acrobatics from Circus Togni. It’s soccer-wrestling to the nth degree: all very Manichean, all so enthralling as to fascinate Italian kids for years, well before the arrival of Holly and Benji. Cult scene: the coach who – to strengthen his muscles – goes back and forth with an off-road vehicle on the legs of a certain Ken Santos, a half-Japanese and half-Brazilian mestizo.

KK is the idol of the 60s. At the Mexico City ’68 Olympics marked by the iconic gloved punch of Smith and Carlos and by the jumps of Bob Beamon and Dick Fosbury, one infinite and the other revolutionary; there is room for too Kunishige Kamamoto, the striker who drags Japan up to the bronze medal and who wins the title of top scorer with 7 goals. At the time in Japan, soccer is outclassed by baseball, there isn’t a real league, the university teams compete against each other. Kamamoto graduated in economics and became famous because in the matches against the big teams of the world (even Pelé’s Cosmos) he made a great impression and earned the call-up (first Japanese ever) in the 1980 Rest of the World selection.

Yasuhiko Okudera: the pioneer in Europe. Summer of 1977, Furukawa goes on tour in Germany. In Cologne, Hennes Weisweiler – a football maestro who won three league titles with Borussia Moenchengladbach – notes Yasuhiko Okudera. He is 25 years old, works as a clerk in the electricity company – sponsor of the team. Many hesitations before accepting, then the choice: Okudera is the first pioneer of Japanese football in Europe. In the Bundesliga he will play 9 years (1977-1986) with Cologne, Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen, with a very solid balance of 313 official appearances and 41 goals. When he returns home, he is greeted like a hero.

With Kazu Miura, Japan lands in Serie A. Operation of merchandising in the 1994-95 season. The president of Genoa Aldo Spinelli buys Kazu Miura without taking out a single lira. All the Japanese pay. Kenwood takes out 2 billion lire. Miura is also sponsored by two personal sponsors, Puma and Suntory, a whiskey brand. Fuji Television acquires exclusive rights to Genoa matches. The Japanese centre-forward stayed in Italy for only one year and scored only one goal, but an epochal one: in the derby against Sampdoria (though Genoa lost 3-2). Years later we will discover that Kazu has become the Benjamin Button of the football world. Time passes, but Miura instead of aging rejuvenates. At 55 he is still active: from here to eternity, chasing a goal.

Nakata: the pop-icon. When Hidetoshi Nakata arrives in Italy-1998-he is by no means a fool: on the contrary, he brings quality and personality as a dowry. He played in Serie A for 7 years (1998-2005) with Perugia, Roma (he won the Scudetto with Capello and Totti), Parma, Bologna and Fiorentina. He is the standard bearer of a country that in those years was growing dramatically on the world stage. Followed by a retinue of journalists with a single mission: to tell the idol minute by minute. Nakata becomes a pop-icon with streaks and cool interests: he travels the world with a backpack and walks the catwalk for the world’s most famous brands and in the meantime – between one interview and another – he asks and wonders: “How can I be useful to the world?”.