Welcome to the "Shogun Soccer" newsletter!
Newsletter on Japanese Soccer (J.League, Japan national team, etc.) from a tactical, data, and fan perspective.
Welcome to "Shogun Soccer", a newsletter about Japanese soccer by Ryo Nakagawara. This newsletter will focus mainly on the J.League (J1) with occasional forays into the Japan national team and the J2 League. I am still unsure about the amount of time I can spend on the WE.League, J3 League, youth national teams, etc. so I won't make any further commitments at this moment.
This newsletter will talk about soccer from mainly a tactical perspective and a data perspective but will incorporate the match day experience as well as I visit more J.League stadiums across the country. For those unfamiliar with my work, I'll point you to some of the stuff I've written in the past:
I noted in my latest J.League season review that writing comprehensive reviews on every single team was taking up too much of my time, so you might be wondering why I want to write a newsletter instead. What I am aiming to do is that by writing more regularly and far more focused stuff on a weekly~monthly basis rather than single tweets or cumbersome Twitter threads, I would be able to more easily collect my thoughts to write my big reviews. I want to avoid scrambling for my hand-written paper notes of matches, random Tweets from a few months ago (Twitter's search function also just flat out sucks...), and flipping through 100s of tactics diagrams whenever I need to write something.
Even still, I don't want this newsletter to take up so much time that it becomes a second job. So what I can promise is that you, the readers, will get at minimum one newsletter a month. Anything more is a bonus! There will be some months where I may write three, four, five newsletters... there will be other months where I might only write one! This is also why this newsletter will be FREE. Even if I decide to make a paid tier in the future, everything I will have written up to that point will always remain FREE. Still, if you want to show some appreciation for my work you can always donate on Ko-Fi.
This is my first time doing a newsletter and it feels like a whole different ball game compared to writing a blog like I have for the past few years. It’ll be a nice challenge to see how much I can improve my writing. I know I have a pretty wide audience... from people in the industry to regular fans. So while there will be newsletters that lean quite heavily for one audience or another I still want to keep this accessible for everyone. After the 2022 World Cup there's been (yet again!) another huge influx of Japanese soccer fans from around the world, so I want to keep that momentum going through “Shogun Soccer”.
...but what is a "Shogun"?
Shogun, or 将軍 in Japanese, basically means military commander-in-chief. At various points in Japanese history it was the shogun, and not the Emperor, that was the de facto ruler of Japan. The shogun that most people would be familiar with is Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan and established the Tokugawa Shogunate that would rule Japan for over 200 years. Basically, I didn't want to be yet another 'samurai/ninja/sushi/sashimi/ebi-furai'-soccer related account so this is the name that I'm going with, baby!
Some disclosures and miscellaneous info
I've become a FC Tokyo fan since I returned to Japan a few years ago. Those familiar with my J.League reviews know that I try to be as objective as possible but nevertheless it does need stating.
I don’t care/know about fantasy football nor SoRare so please don’t ask me for advice when it comes to these things. Sorry that I can’t help but hopefully just reading my stuff will still be of use to you.
As much as I would like to, I can't watch every single game. I usually aim to watch 70~80% of all games and try to equally watch all teams. Of course, depending on the season I have teams I'm much more interested in watching for various reasons (a particular player I've got my eye on, interesting play style, etc.).
I am not a professional analyst. I just like soccer, man.
Tactics diagrams are made using TACTICALISTA.
Data viz are made using R.
You can also find me on Twitter (@R_by_Ryo), GitHub, and LinkedIn.
Email: ryonakagawara(at)gmail(dot)com
The J.League
The J.League was founded back in 1992 with the first season kicking off in 1993 with 10 fully professional clubs. Up to that point Japan only had amateur clubs organized in the Japan Soccer League. Throughout the past 30 years, the league expanded and grew enough to create the J2 (in 1999) and J3 (2014) tiers. Below is a map of all professional J.League teams (as of 2020).
As of 2022, there are 18 J1 teams, 22 J2 teams, and 18 J3 teams. Just recently on December 20, 2022, the J.League made various announcements on the future of the professional league. Check out Dan Orlowitz's Twitter thread on this topic for details:
Below is a chart showing the changes to the promotion/relegation scenarios to align with the structural changes.
The biggest news is that the J.League will be fully transitioning to 20 teams per each professional division by the start of the 2024 season, so a total of 60 (sixty!) professional clubs!
There are a lot of people in the international J.League community. In the lead up to the 2022 season I created a big thread on all the different international fan/media accounts that cover the league below:
Now... a little FAQ about me. If you're just here for "the content" then you can stop reading, thanks for reading this far. Be on the look out for a newsletter on winter transfers (so far) soon!
Otherwise, read on!
About Me (FAQ)
Where are you from?
I am Japanese, born in Tokyo... BUT I've lived most of my life outside Japan, so I don't feel 100% Japanese. I've lived in America (California, both NorCal and SoCal), Israel, Germany, and England while I've also had the privilege of visiting as a tourist or playing soccer in many many more countries. Most people who meet me think I'm Japanese-American and "culturally" I definitely feel American (but not Japanese-American though). I sound exactly how I tweet. (American) English is my primary language, despite being back in Japan I only use English at work so I've felt very odd in my home country since I came back 5 years ago. Getting more into the J.League was partly an attempt to try and wade more into Japanese culture.
What is your regular/day job?
I work as a data scientist/software developer for an international development NGO.
Have you thought of pursuing a career in soccer/football?
I've gone back and forth on this a lot in the past but currently no. I prefer to remain outside the industry (while taking on the occasional consulting work like I did for 11tegen11 back in 2020) and do all of this as a hobby.
Favorite team?
Liverpool F.C. Before I started really getting into the J.League most people on Twitter would have known me for my analysis of Liverpool matches I think. I became a fan because of Michael Owen scoring that beauty of a goal vs. Argentina in the 1998 World Cup (the rest of my memories at that age were obviously blurry so I remember the 2002 World Cup better overall though).
Favorite player(s)?
Michael Owen
Ronaldo (Brazil, R9. The only player named Ronaldo that I recognize.)
Zinedine Zidane
Oliver Kahn
Luis Figo
Steven Gerrard
Favorite J.League player(s)?
Of those currently still in J1 (as of writing):
Diego Oliveira
Adailton
Yasuto Wakizaka
Ataru Esaka
Tomoki Iwata
Favorite soccer anime/manga?
"Giant Killing". It's so nice to see a relatively grounded depiction of soccer in anime, mainly through the lens of a young manager at a struggling professional club. It also focuses a bit on the a wide cast of upper management, marketing people, coaches, fans (casual and hardcore), camera men, etc. which is cool as well. The anime is good but I still recommend reading the manga for a more comprehensive story.
I've recently gotten into "Blue Lock" and "Ao Ashi" but they're your more typical shounen soccer stuff.
Do you play soccer? What position do you play?
Yep. I first kicked a ball when I was 3 for a small local club that played on a dirt patch inside a park near my house. It was difficult having to constantly move countries every few years but the one constant for me was being able to make friends by kicking a ball around an open field.
I started out as a goalkeeper, idolized Oliver Kahn, Iker Casillas, and Seigo Narazaki. Then got bored so played on the field as a wide midfielder (back in the days of 4-4-2), "get down the line and cross". I always practiced with my weaker (left) foot so I was normally put on the left but I didn't mind, it doubled my chances of playing time after all! As football evolved I turned into more of a 4-3-3 winger but when I was living in Germany I was a Left/Right Back for my school team but played as a striker for my club team.
Nowadays I only play for fun and mainly futsal (5v5, 7v7). I feel like I've become a much more well-rounded player as a result but most importantly, I simply enjoy playing now more than ever.
Do you play other sports?
Yep. Hockey is my 2nd sport, absolutely love it. Played it all the time when I was a kid. Massive San Jose Sharks fan. Unfortunately, I barely have time to watch hockey especially when I'm just barely keeping up with the J.League as it is... Otherwise, baseball. Used to play 3rd base (good at fielding, awful at batting), San Francisco Giants fan. I used to play golf with my dad as one of the ways I would spend time bonding with him.
Thanks for reading and see y’all next time!
Inspired by you to write about my 1st match experience at Kashima!
https://hiddenjapan.substack.com/p/kashima-antlers-and-my-first-j-league