The fandom of Japan: How one nation became a world leader in getting behind its team

It doesn’t matter what the sport is, Japanese fans are some of the most dedicated on the planet. Much like the giving of gifts, this wealth of cheering prowess is long-established in the country’s culture. By Alan Dymock

Fans enjoy the atmosphere ahead of the nation’s rugby match last weekend (Reuters)

Celebrating his 26th birthday away from familiar, predictable New Zealand, All Blacks star Ardie Savea opted for the typical experience of enjoying a meal with team-mates. But there was another intervention on that relaxed day, among the bustle of a Rugby World Cup in Japan, which merited a brief mention during a press conference. “I actually got a present from a Japanese fan, which was really nice,” Savea said as an aside, before giving a sliver of more detail. “An old lady came into the hotel and dropped off some stuff for me and my little daughter, too – some stickers and a birthday card.”

It transpires that the ever-popular Kiwis had been regularly receiving gifts on their trip around Japan. Their hotel was littered with tokens and cards from the get-go, at their initial camp in Kashiwa. According to the press team with the All Blacks, neither they nor the World Cup powers had ever advertised where team digs were, yet, as one insider said with a shrug: “They just seem to find us.”

As squads and gaijin (foreign) supporters have discovered throughout their stay in Japan, the local sports fans do one thing better than almost anyone else in the world: get organised. At the halfway point of that World Cup, the game’s custodians revealed that more than 1.8m tickets had been sold for the event, with a 99 per cent take-up. There was another arresting figure. Around 200,000 replica Japan shirts had been sold.