In the August of 2023, I wrote an article which was a cry for help. I was tired, I just had a stressful nine months to juggle, and it seemed that this project was about to either survive or die. And, in a certain sense, so was I. In that article, I wrote how I didn’t want to let go a part of myself like “J. League Regista”. In the end, I pulled through, and the project kept going, although at a reasonable pace for my liking.
I’m 37 and this didn’t change. My life is done of other things, but Japanese football has been the trait which featured the most my persona. So much that it followed me even in my recent adventure, having been involved in some Japan-related ops that I wouldn’t been involved in otherwise. It seemed like destiny wanted me to continue to invest time into this, so something made its way into my mind.
At the beginning of 2025, looking at the platforms’ situation and the status of the website, I decided one thing: a shake-up was in place. Life is made this way: if you fall complacent into the same routine and you’re curious, you get bored. And I didn’t want to fall into that danger. Therefore, I started working on the renewal of JLR, only to launch it one year later (and it’s not a random date: it’s been a decade from the first post here, courtesy of the great Stuart Smith).
But to make this doable, I needed some order in my mind. So let me take through what I call the “narrative pyramid” that JLR will be from now on. Keeping in mind one thing: following the whole of Japanese football will stay the must-focus of this project. This won’t change.
First and Foremost
I like to write. I always think it gives you think to digest and reflect, rather than a social media post, which has another rhythm and a different urgency. And writing stays in the long-term: it’s always nice to re-read something you liked. So, there’s no doubt that the website will remain the main asset of “J. League Regista”. That’s the place where you’ll find most of the things regarding this project.
Articles will be the backbone of telling Japanese football through these pages. I’ll use other tools as well – tools that I’ve paused for a long time, whether because I didn’t have the time or the will to follow them. But the website will be the sparkle that fires every other match tied to JLR. And you can see there’s much to discover about the new structure you’ll see in the website.
There’s the main page with the most recent articles, but now you can visit:
– A proper “Categories” pages, arranged like a Netflix catalogue between the competitions and the columns (something I took very close to my heart, because they’re a separate conversation for each topic).
– “Maps”, which is a section in which you can find two maps – Japan and the world map –, dividing articles per Prefecture, squad or even nation.
– The “Regista Awards” section, in which it’s gathered all the history of all the winners from the polls I run each season, with the articles tied to each winner linked in the proper place.
– A “Website” section, in which I highlighted the best you can follow around the J.League-sphere and their fans.
– Last but not least, a proper “About” page, which was definitely missing at the beginning of this adventure.
These are all matched by a new logo, and in general, it’s a way more arranged structure for what I hope to see: new J.League fans, eager to know more and more. Because yes – curiosity has to be the backbone of this exploration on the website. But that’s not the only tool from now on.
The Supporting Acts
I can’t deny it: Twitter has been not just the main source of traffic for J.League Regista, but also a very popular tool in Japan and probably my “pet app” until… 2022. When Elon Musk took over, I felt that period was ending. And I was right – “X” is now a cesspool of crypto bros, bots, and Grok sexualizing every breathing thing. Which is a shame, because many here can remember what Twitter used to be (not the savior of worlds, but still!).
Even a simple comparison with Bluesky – ran throughout these months by publishing the JLR articles under my own account – struck reality: the engagement was kind of the same, and I had way less followers there. Nonetheless, JRL has more than 2,500 followers on Twitter and it’s still very important as an app in Japan. Therefore, we won’t blackout from there, but it’s gonna be dedicated more to gifs and plays on the pitch.
What’s ramping up again, instead, is Instagram. I opened an account back in 2020 with the hope of scaling up operations there, but I didn’t have neither the time nor the knowledge. Now that I find a way to conjugate both of them, it’s definitely doable, although without overdoing. In the end, I don’t know if users will run towards JLR there, so there’s gonna be a steady presence, but nothing spectacular.
You will find curiosities, stats, or things you haven’t thought about. For example: did you know that Peter Utaka is the foreign player with the most goals in J2 history? No? That’s the kind of facts you’ll find on Instagram – digestible, curious, and ready to be shared to the people you might want to involve in the J.League-sphere. Oh, and maybe it’s gonna be a way to give graphics of the articles a breathing space there too.
The Other Parts
With my surprise, LinkedIn has been steady in its growth. 400 followers are not an ocean, but the crowd has been there, and I hope J.League clubs and divisions will be active there as well. Therefore, the LinkedIn page will be just a reflection of the articles, but it’s still gonna be useful.
What’s gonna be new, instead, is Substack. I’m gonna launch a small newsletter, which will come out every Tuesday, and it will be a 2.0 version of what “Seeking Kazu” used to be. It was a blog on Blogger where I used to condense GIFs about what was happening over the J.League weekend, but the Substack newsletter will be more than that, giving you a mix of past, present, and future.
Last but not least, two more tools. Those won’t be used that much, but they’ll steadily ramp up when material will be available. The easier one will be Spotify – JLR has a channel there and I’ll use to upload from time-to-time articles turned into small episodes, so the text will be used as a script to intercept new audiences there. Hopefully it’ll breach some interests among the football community.
And then YouTube – of course, there’s a small channel, and I’m not planning to work on many videos. Not my cup of tea, to be honest… but whenever I’ll have the chance of an interview, I’ll try to sneak up a snippet of that chat under a video blanket. In the “About” section of this website or on this Linktree, you’ll find every tool at your hand.
You might be asking why I’m doing this. Isn’t the Internet already overcrowded with information? And what is this website/project aspiring to be? Well, thanks for asking. First: yes, but not in the way I’m doing it. I’m trying to bring a slow-breathing project into a fast-paced world, and I refuse to think that the world is done for that.
Last but not least, we wanna be “The Ringer” meeting “Opta”, with a sprinkle of irony and curiosity all over the place. Hopefully, it will work out – up to you if that’s going to be the case.
Good luck to you in all of this!