Daisuke Nakanishi speaks to Goal about the J-League's future

Goal Japan chief editor Cesare Polenghi sat down with the J-League's director of competitions to discuss the state of professional football and what the future holds

CP: How would you describe the J-League’s growth in these 20 years?



DN: It’s like watching a child grow 10 centimeters in a year. But for an adult it’s hard to grow even one. Now that the J-League is an adult [20 is the age of adulthood in Japan] we have to work even harder to grow that one centimeter. Thanks to the hard work of many people we’ve managed to meet many of our goals in these 20 seasons. But in that time, the global game has changed a lot as well. The ways in which it’s changed are astounding. We grew up but the world’s grown as well, so we have new challenges facing us.



CP: Even though Kashiwa Reysol are a model J-League club in how they’ve built a strong community and developed, in the ACL semi-finals they lost to Guangzhou Evergrande, a team with a budget four times as big. So what worries me is, if a great club like Reysol can’t compete with the likes of Evergrande, what sort of future do they have in Asia and globally?



DN: One issue is that compared to Chinese clubs, J-League clubs raise better players who tend to leave for Europe at a young age. This benefits the business of the national team, but with the poor economic situation in Japan it’s harder for clubs invest in replacement players.



CP: Of course you can look at the positive, that we’re raising good players.



DN: This season’s Best XI had 11 Japanese players for the second time ever. And they’re all high-level players.



CP: Right now there are only about five, maybe 10 good foreign players in the J-League, and the majority of foreigners are Brazilian or Korean. Does the J-League’s scouting network need to improve?



DN: We’ve been slow to approach Europe as a source of players. If you look at Spain, a lot of their clubs are doing poorly economically and can’t pay their younger player, who are going overseas. There’s a lot of Spaniards in the Thai Premier League, for example. I think if we look at those countries we might find opportunities.



CP: It seems that teams like Reds and Marinos have great stadiums and great players, but they can’t win titles and never seem to grow that last centimeter.



DN: Sanfrecce’s consecutive titles are a good example of the state of the J-League. They’re local but have healthy finances, a lot of great young players, and good scouting. They’ve worked hard to get where they are.



CP: Does the J-League need a ‘big club’?



DN: This year Gamba Osaka were in the J2, and they had national team players like Endo and Konno and sold out stadiums across the league. Those sorts of ‘big clubs’ help push the J-League to grow. But you can’t force a team like that into being.



CP: Some people have said it’s too early for the league to open a third division. Will there be enough players for 52 clubs?



DN: If you wait until you have 52 clubs’ worth of players to expand to 52 clubs, you might wait forever. But if you give those players an opportunity to play at a higher level, you can develop better players. In these 20 years, Niigata have succeeded, Kofu have succeeded, Tosu have succeeded; people see those clubs and think “I want my area to have a team,” or “I want to play for a local team”.



CP: Was there any consideration for a premier league above the J1?



DN: In 20 years we’ve had 29 teams play in the J1; that’s a pretty fast pace after starting with 10. And the towns that experience J1 football for even one season fall in love with the sport. Ventforet fans experienced that when they hosted Urawa Reds for the first time. Tosu is a town of 70,000 people, but they can pack a stadium that seats 20,000; it’s something that town’s never seen before.



If we stick with an 18-team J1 and keep our current promotion/relegation system, one by one new teams get promoted and those towns grow to love football more. By keeping that up Japan can become a footballing nation. So rather than create a super league or premier league, instead it’s better for Japan if we work to increase that base.



CP: Speaking of Reds supporters, I once heard from an Australian journalist that when Reds went there for their first ACL appearance about seven or eight years ago, they brought 10,000 supporters and that impacted Australian football.



DN: It’s those supporters who make the J-League what it is. I watch several games a year in Europe, but the J-League’s incredible atmosphere is unique. Families help make it, and there’s respect for opposing supporters. It’s great.



CP: But there has to be some way for supporters to help improve the league.



DN: We'd like to work with our supporters. In our surveys, when we asked what brought people to the stadium for the first time, and a majority responded that someone had invited them. It’s that kind of league, where it’s easy to invite someone to go with you and enjoy a match together.



CP: It’s an exciting league; I can’t remember watching many low-scoring games this year. Lately in Serie A and the EPL a lot of teams play for a 0-0 result.



DN: Officials in Asia and Europe often ask me why the J-League has grown this much. Japan wasn’t a football national originally, so we couldn’t say “Come and watch a football game.” We said, “Even if you don’t understand the game, come and support your hometown.” Clubs like Ventforet and Albirex succeeded not because they had a lot of football fans, but because the fans enjoyed coming out and supporting their town and they grew to love the sport.



The players who have been in the league since the beginning gave it their all on the pitch and worked hard to draw fans because they knew that they were helping to create Japanese football. Because we started from nothing. And that’s what we tell people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.



Check out the second part of our interview with Daisuke Nakanishi, in which he discusses the J-League's growing relationship with Southeast Asia