[Football] How big is Mitoma back in Japan

[Nobby Cybergoat]

As you may already guess / know, I'm a Japanese football fan. I can provide some information about him and other Japanese footballers with this forum. However, I don't want to "contaminate" this beautiful Brighton forum, so I won't over-post here. If you have some questions about Mitoma or Japanese football / footballers, ask me, I'll try to answer

You're very welcome here, we all want to know more about Mitoma and it's hard to imagine this forum being more contaminated than it already is, so please keep it up.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

https://lifebogger.com/kaoru-mitoma-childhood-biography-story-facts/

Blimey this site has done some research

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Average japanese male is 5ft 7.4

Mitoma is 5ft 10

He's quite big.

 

[GT49er]

Forgot that one, and I don’t see why not. Ultimate compliment and probably at a speed befitting our love of warp factor chanting!

Quite right ..........................
"Turning Japanese oh yeh we're turning Japanese
We've got Mitoma
Turning Japanese oh yeh we're turning Japanese
Kaoru Mitoma"

..... fits the tune - and scans a damn sight better than many!

 

[edna krabappel]

Probably students with zero interest in football

Or Korean.

 

[matski_98]

I really think developing a global fanbase is important in helping maintain our progress. Mitomas progress along with MacAllisters heroics at the WC have really increased our profile in Asia and South America.

Definitely. Spuds have sold thousands of Son replica shirts to fans in South Korea and made them the most popular Prem club over there. It'd be interesting to see what our replica shirt sales to Japan have been like this season.

 

[We're the Stripes]

Definitely. Spuds have sold thousands of Son replica shirts to fans in South Korea and made them the most popular Prem club over there. It'd be interesting to see what our replica shirt sales to Japan have been like this season.

I'm asking from a position of complete ignorance on this, but how easily obtainable has the club typically made our shirts globally? I'm assuming it'd be restricted to online sales, and we're not anywhere near the point of having our shirts stocked in for example, Nike stores across Japan, yet?

 

[Mt.Fuji]

One thing I have noticed is his English is very good, especially compared to a lot of Japanese players that have played in Europe.


It's great we're getting these Japanese fans over and supporting the club. I just hope that they don't go in a home end at the wrong club.

The economy of Japan is the third biggest after US and China (used to be the second by 2010), so almost all foreign things are translated into Japanese for Japanese market. As a result, most Japanese are not motivated to learn English seriously. Plus, Japanese pronunciation is one of the easiest of all languages with only 5 simple vowels (a, i, u, e, o), which makes it difficult for Japanese people to speak any foreign languages.

 

[Mt.Fuji]

By the way, I think (or I should say hope?) "Next Mitoma" will start landing in England one after another in the future.

For long, Japan had been a "baseball country". There weren't professional football clubs at all in Japan 30 years ago. Baseball was by far the most popular sport and kids used to choose baseball, not football. No professional footballers, hence, Japan was not able to get qualified to FIFA World Cup at all until early 90s. About 30 years ago, Japanese first ever professional football league (= J-League) was founded with only 10 clubs. The number of clubs keeps increasing gradually and the number of J-League clubs has become 60. Now, Japan has been qualified to 7 consecutive FIFA World Cups from 1998 to 2022, having reached the knockout stage 4 times. In the last world cup (2022 Qatar), Japan defeated Germany and Spain. I heard kids choose to play football more than baseball in recent years. JFA (Japan Football Association) say "Our goal is to win the world cup by 2050".

Thanks to Mitoma, Brighton is getting something special for Japanese football fans like me. I hope Kaoru Mitoma and "Future Mitoma" (= Japanese footballers playing in EPL in the future) will help Brighton and entertain Brighton fans and me.

‘Project DNA’: How Japan’s J1 League became a ‘flair factory’ for Europe’s top clubs
https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/project-dna-japan-league-flair-factory-europe-top-clubs-2184690

 

[Norman Potting]

I feel quite enlightened on Japanese football matters based on the postings our new fan from the other side of the world. Hopefully he or she, will make it to the Amex before too long and be greeted by .... "one Mt. Fuji, there's only one Mt. Fuji....." chants....

 

[Originunknown]

Welcome Mt Fuji, please post away. You will have no chance at dominating or contaminating the board with your kind, humble respect and our resident Swansman

 

[ChickenBaltiPie]

I don't want to "contaminate" this beautiful Brighton forum, so I won't over-post here.

The irony of this charming introduction cannot of escaped all but me, surely?! I actually thought it was a wind up at first haha

 

[Mt.Fuji]

That appears to be all about the Albion, not just Mitoma, with a report on Bloom and De Zerbi as well as the bits on Ally Mac and Estupinian.

I might try and find a copy and then spend the next six months trying to read it...

Not all pages but you can see a lot of pages online before / without buying(not all pages, of course, but still very fun to see). I really like the latest volume very much. You can see many pages here. Click 試し読み on the link below, then you can see many pages before / without buying. A lot of pictures are used, and you don't need Japanese language to enjoy it
Amazon product

 

[erkan]

Not all pages but you can see a lot of pages online before / without buying (not all pages, ofcourse, but still very fun to see). I really like the latest volume very much. You can see many pages here. Click 試し読み on the link below, then you can see many pages before / without buying. A lot of pictures are used, and you don't need Japanese language to enjoy it
Amazon product

Thanks for posting that. Incredible for Albion fans to digest the reach of our club now.

 

[Live by the sea]

Spoke to a young Japanese chap sitting next to me at the West Ham game . He lives in Japan & spoke ok English . He said Mitoma since the World Cup & Brighton doing well has rocketed to the main overseas player in Japan , previously was the Arsenal Defender .

 

[B-right-on]

Not all pages but you can see a lot of pages online before / without buying(not all pages, of course, but still very fun to see). I really like the latest volume very much. You can see many pages here. Click 試し読み on the link below, then you can see many pages before / without buying. A lot of pictures are used, and you don't need Japanese language to enjoy it
Amazon product

That is brilliant. A whole feature on us. A photo and description of each individual player, the ground, training facilities and even a map to show where Brighton is.

Can see it sparking a few youngsters into following us.

 

[Mt.Fuji]

That is brilliant. A whole feature on us. A photo and description of each individual player, the ground, training facilities and even a map to show where Brighton is.

Can see it sparking a few youngsters into following us.

Roughly speaking, it consists of 100 pages. 80 pages are about Brighton or Mitoma and the rest 20 pages are about English Premier League, and so on. It's one of several very major Japanese football magazines. Nearly 80 pages out of 100 pages are about Brighton or Mitoma and I think it shows how big Mitoma is here in Japan right now and it will help Brighton become bigger as well here in Japan. I wrote "Nearly 80 pages are about Brighton or Mitoma" but you can only see about 20 - 30 pages without / before buying (the magazine has a lot more pages about Brighton than you may think). Each page has a lot of beautiful Brighton related pictures.

I think the magazine will make a lot of Japanese football fans feel like supporting / rooting for Brighton

 

[dazzer6666]

Great thread. Thanks

@Mt.Fuji for the insight - really interesting

Meanwhile -

 

[Bozza]

Great insight - thanks @Mt.Fuji!

Also, welcome to new members @shibainu and @SAYURI who might have things to add.

 

[peterward]

As just mentioned in the mods WhatsApp group, visitors to NSC from Japan this week were up 571% on this time last year.

I doubt they were all trying to keep up with Caicedo-gate.

They were all looking in vain for the amazon.co.jp affiliate link.