Newly

Japan [Digital]

Product description

Japanese football is a world unto itself. A magical, unique sphere in which the fan is placed front and centre of the action and outstanding footballers are bred across the land. Simply put, there's nowhere quite like it. 
But what we know today as Asia's biggest and best power, celebrating 30 years of the J League, is borne of the modern game. Indeed, prior to 1992, the game wasn't professionalised, and the best players - the likes of Kunishige Kamamoto, with 75 goals in 76 Japan games - spent their entire careers at home. And then boom. When the J League came into existence, Japanese football would never be the same again. 
From the likes of Kamamoto, Miura, Nakata and Honda to the birth of the J League, fan culture, the Samurai Blue and Captain Tsubasa, let us transport you through the incredible world of Japanese football, the first English-language magazine dedicated solely to the Land of the Rising Sun's game.
Across 128 pages, you'll find the following:

The legend of Kunishige Kamamoto
Kazuyoshi Miura: more than just a number
How the 1992 Asian Cup transformed Japanese football
The birth and rise of the J League
Why do so many players in their 30s and 40s keep starring in Japan?
The day a high-school team almost beat the J League champions
The cult of Hidetoshi Nakata
How Captain Tsubasa inspired the likes of Del Piero, Iniesta and Messi
Fukushima United: when football meets a nuclear disaster
The 2002 World Cup
2002-2022: twenty years of the Samurai Blue
Keisuke Honda is eternal
The fandom of Japanese football through its mascots
Illustrated: eight legendary Japan shirts
Illustrated: eight legendary J League shirts
The football club map of Japan
The J League by numbers
(A rather lovely photo of Kazu Miura and Paul Gascoigne)
... and much more.