From ‘Captain Tsubasa’ to the World Cup, China’s love affair with Japan football lives on

SHANGHAI, June 25 — In a packed Shanghai sports bar, Chinese football fans erupted in frenzied delight as Japan’s Ayase Ueda looped a header over Tunisia’s goalkeeper to secure a 4-0 win in a World Cup group match.

China isn’t the most obvious place for Japan fandom to thrive — the two countries’ historical animosity is never far from the surface and relations have been tense since hawkish Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office in Tokyo last year.

But for the dozens of blue-jerseyed Chinese supporters in the bar on Sunday afternoon glued to Japan’s every move on massive screens, their love of the football team has a long personal history, completely detached from politics.

“For our generation — the 90s generation — most of us basically grew up watching a lot of Japanese anime, including Captain Tsubasa (a series about a football prodigy),” said Fan, the group’s main organiser, who gave only his surname.

“More importantly, since we are both part of Asia, you could say that Japan now represents the pride and glory of Asian football.”

China have only qualified once for the World Cup, in 2002, when they lost all three of their games without scoring a goal.

They are 91st in the Fifa world rankings, while Japan are the top Asian team at 16th.

Fu Jinyu, a long-time Japan fan who has written a book on the subject, said Japan has a modern football ecosystem supporting youth development and fan culture, and the team is now at “European-level competitiveness”.

In contrast, “the Chinese are still struggling... not knowing what the correct path is”, he said.

“Chinese football... has become increasingly insular and is simply not as open as it used to be,” Jasper Sun, another of Fan’s group, told AFP.

‘Relatively open-minded’

On Sunday, as the final whistle blew, the group pulled out an enormous team flag and posed at the front of the bar, jumping up and down and cheering with joy.

Asked if they had ever encountered animosity from other Chinese people, both Fan and Sun shrugged it off.

“There will definitely be people like that, but personally, I don’t really pay much attention to that kind of thing,” said Fan.

Sun said he could understand why supporters in other regions might have concerns but that Shanghai was “relatively open-minded and inclusive”.

When he had travelled, for example to watch Japan play China in Xiamen in 2024, he said he hadn’t encountered problems.

“Honestly, there wasn’t much conflict... We all took the bus together at the time,” he added.

Online interactions can be a different matter, as Aki Yang has found.

The 30-year-old, from eastern China, runs a social media fan page for the Japanese national team.

She has attracted a growing number of followers — and a growing amount of abuse, which she said she had “got used to”.

“Some netizens say things online like, ‘What sort of traitor or lackey are you?’,” she said.

On the Instagram-like platform Xiaohongshu, one recent post gave advice on concealing the flag on Japanese jerseys, to “avoid embarrassment”.

“Wear a helmet when you go out,” another user posted.

‘Bridge of friendship’

Student Julie Wang told AFP the comments she sees online mean she does not dare publicly express support for Japan.

“I’ve noticed some arguing that supporting the Japanese team at this time is unpatriotic,” she said.

Relations have been particularly fraught since Prime Minister Takaichi suggested Tokyo might intervene militarily if Beijing were to invade self-governing Taiwan.

“Honestly, especially now when relations are more strained, I feel it’s even more necessary for people like us to stand up,” said Fan, the Shanghai supporters’ group organiser.

“My ultimate ideal — my biggest dream — is to help build a bridge of friendship between our two countries.”

Despite the abuse she has received, Yang still believes football can “break down barriers”.

“The world is so tumultuous today, football can set aside political identities and nationality, becoming simply a source of joy,” she said. — AFP