Japan’s buzzing youth setup comprises clubs and schools
KOLKATA:Yoshiro Moriyama has fun at media conferences and his witticisms spark a ripple of laughter through the Japanese media contingent. The humour is usually lost in translation but on Monday when Hindustan Times asked him to talk about Japan’s youth development, he smiled and held up three fingers. “Three hours,” is what he would need, said the Japan coach.
“The responsibility of developing players lies with academies at J-League clubs but the Japan Football Association (JFA) and the league are always on the same page. The clubs have a high standard of coaching and our job at JFA is to let players experience international football. We have at least one national team activity each month and after each of these, we share information with all the club coaches to ensure continuity,” said Moriyama here on Monday.
This is part of what Japan calls the ‘Trinitarian Strengthening Plan’ which, according to the JFA website, is a combination of three things: enhancing the national team, working on youth development and getting coaches to interact with each other regularly. The plan also seeks to stop national team imitating other countries and work on Japanese’s strengths such as agility and tenacity to work around their lack of size.
Apart from the J-League clubs, there are local clubs such as Kyoto Sanga FC, from where skipper Shimpei Fukuoaka got selected, and Mitsubishi Yowa SC which has hattrick scorer Keito Nakamura on its roster, who contribute to developing teens.
There is also a vibrant highschool and university circuit. The clubs, high schools and universities play an annual tournament. There are many tournaments for the youth, said a journalist here for the under-17 World Cup. And many private academies, he added.
The JFA has also set up academies in Fukushima, Shizuoka, Sakai and Kumamoto.
We have at least one national team activity a month and share this with club coaches for continuity. YOSHIRO MORIYAMA, Japan coach Responsibility of developing players lies with academies but the JLeague and JFA are on the same page Y MORIYAMA, On programme