Japanese football legend Hiromi Hara has heaped praise on Ange Postecoglou and Kyogo Furuhashi for raising the profile of football in the country.
Furuhashi has been brilliant since moving to Celtic from Vissel Kobe and the Hoops supporters have got behind Postecoglou since he joined as manager.
Furuhashi has five goals already and his impact in the Far East has been noted by Hara, who was capped 75 times by Japan before going on to manage them and Urawa Reds. He's now vice-president of his country's J-League.
The frontman was on the scoresheet again at Celtic Park on Sunday when he scored the clinching goal in a 3-2 win over Hearts.
He said: "It's difficult to say if we can ever develop the J-League to challenge the Premier League or La Liga mostly due to the geographical situation.
"But thanks to Andres Iniesta for example, the level of interest is higher than ever before.
"And if look at a club like Celtic, they looked at Japan to recruit Ange Postecoglou in the middle of a season to become their new manager and signed one of our best players, Kyogo Furuhashi.
"So you have a major club like that who have signed a manager and a key player, that clearly increases the status of the J-League.
"It was of the utmost importance that money went into the clubs when Celtic signed Furuhashi for example because that can be recycled in the league.
"While I can understand the frustrations of the fans here who see their players and managers leave for Europe, I can fully accept the reason they want to test themselves in Europe.
"That doesn't mean the J-League isn't a good league. We have seen legends such as Yasuhito Endo and Kengo Nakamura stay and prove that.
"It's okay to have a mix because the important thing is the profile of the J-League has been raised considerably."
