“The Athletic”, “Total Football Analysis”, and many more: Japan is on the map. It’s not just the performance at 2022 FIFA World Cup – where the Samurai Blue upset both Germany and Spain to win the group -, but it’s also around the professional attitude of players, the contained costs, and the easier accessibility to scouting tools towards the country.
This spurred a literal revolution in the last windows of the transfer market. On average, 10 players from the J.League are leaving the country to try the European leap, and also this last Winter transfer window surpassed the average of five. This Summer is proving to be the epitome of this approach – so many players have left the J.League, with clubs like Albirex Niigata or Shonan Bellmare even 3-4 members leaving for Europe.
Therefore, the question is not anymore why European clubs are picking Japanese clubs, but rather from where. And a few hubs consolidated themselves in the last years – and that’s what we’ve been investigating in these months. After three European-based episodes in this column (you can find them here), we’ll move to another continent, discussing another country who took a gamble on the J.League.
USA & Canada will host the next FIFA World Cup, but in general the Major League Soccer has now more Japanese players than it used to have. To talk about it, we sat down with Manuel Veth, Area Manager for Transfermarkt in North America, writer for Forbes, and Host of the Gegenpressing Podcast (which revolves around Bundesliga). Please enjoy the read!
Let’s start from afar – USA and Japan haven’t played against each other. Just three times – two wins for Japan, one for the USA, and a nearby friendly game between the two of them. Do you see any similarities in the way of interpreting football?
I think both are still quite new to the sport, even if the history of soccer is perhaps a bit older in the United States than it is in Japan. Both countries obviously hired specialists from other nations to accelerate their development. What stands out when you see Japan is that they have married technical ability with their own typical discipline. Some of that might be due to the fact that they hired coaches from Germany in the 1990s. But it is also culturally.
Football in North America is more physical and less tactical. It is also heavily influenced by the Latin population and the fact that the US and Canada have to compete against Central and South American countries.
The MLS hosts seven Japanese players, 1.4% of the total foreign force. It’s been a steady rise in the last years – which factors have pushed that?
Some of it is situational. The Whitecaps signed Yohei Takaoka who has been great a couple seasons ago. Vancouver has a very large Japanese population and integrating the player was, therefore, easy. The same is true with the guys who play down in California. What is new perhaps is that we see Japanese talent go the college route and then get drafted by MLS clubs.
We have seen that with a few European nations as well. It is a secure pathway to professionalism because at the worst case you can bank on a great education.
Eight Japanese players joined an MLS club in the last five years – basically the same amount of how many actually featured in the MLS from the beginning until 2020. Compared to the times when Kazuki Kimura was the lone Japanese player in the championship, what’s changed? Both from the Japanese side and the US side.
The game has become more global, but also there is a greater pool of Japanese players available, which naturally means that MLS clubs will sign them. You have to also remember that MLS has also dramatically expanded. We now have 30 clubs in the league and expansion isn’t finished yet.
At the top of your head – best and worst deal for an MLS club around a Japanese player. And if you look at the 2025 Japanese contingent in the championship, who’s the player that’s impressing you the most?
Best and worst deals is a tough question. We probably hoped a bit more from Yuya Kubo. Takaoka has been great in Vancouver. Maya Yoshida was an important part of the Galaxy’s championship campaign last year.
Last but not least, this could work the other way around. No US player has ever featured in the J1 League or J2 League, while just two players made it in the J3 League (Mobi Fehr in 2014 and Kojo Dadzie in this season). Do you see a couple of names that could do some good in the J.League from the US football movement?
Another tricky question. I think overall, MLS pays a bit better wages than the J.League and the United States, despite its current problems, and Canada are attractive destinations for foreigners to live. The language and culture make it really easy. The same can’t be said about Japan, even though it is a country very high on my list to visit.
With that in mind, I can see players being hesitant about the path. But we see in baseball that US players have made the move to Japan and have succeeded. So why not. But I think the first player to do so will be someone at the tail end of their career perhaps with a cultural connection to Japan.
This is the fourth episode of a column that we hope that will give the best to the curious followers around the J.League. We can only thank Manuel for his availability – you can follow him on so many platforms, like Instagram, Bluesky and Substack. As said in the beginning, you can still read about the previous episodes here.
Transfermarkt is surely one hub to refer to, and we hope to have other protagonists of their team involved. Meanwhile, we’re looking to new columns for 2026, and you know how much we like them (check here all categories). See you soon!
