It has been almost a fortnight since Japan exited the Rugby World Cup, but it is standing-room-only at the No Side Club, a rugby-themed bar in the Takadanobaba district of Tokyo. Japanese fans have come together, as they do on the last Wednesday of every month to eat, drink and support rugby in Kamaishi, a tournament venue destroyed by the March 2011 tsunami disaster and, more recently, a victim of Typhoon Hagibis.
Through the merry haze emitted by the dozens of drinkers seated among replica jerseys, scarves and player photographs, talk is turning to Saturday’s final and which team, in the absence of the Brave Blossoms and the perennially popular All Blacks, are more deserving of local support.
For a few days after Japan were beaten 26-3 by the Springboks in the quarter-finals, Japanese fans took to social media to share their sense of “rugby loss”. There was more disappointment last weekend when the All Blacks, indisputably the most popular visiting team in the host nation, were demolished by England – the victors coached, of course, by Eddie Jones, the man who guided the Brave Blossoms to their most famous victory before this tournament.
Counterintuitively, Japan’s quarter-final defeat has ensured that local loyalties will be divided for Saturday’s game. There is little appetite here for England to exact revenge against Japan’s conquerors, and genuine affection for the Springboks and their travelling fans.
For No Side regular Nobuhiko Otomo, South Africa represent far more than just a fearsome rugby team. “I’m going to support the Springboks,” says Otomo, a 57-year-old writer and photographer. “I’m really taken with the whole Rainbow Nation story and with Siya Kolisi [the first black captain to lead the Springboks at a World Cup]. I was impressed when Michael Leitch spoke of his pride in leading a diverse Japanese team, and South Africa exemplifies those values.”
For all the mixed feelings he evokes elsewhere, Jones is revered in Japan as the man who masterminded the famous victory over South Africa at the last World Cup.
“Eddie is a god – we all love him,” says Hirosuke Mikasa. “I honestly didn’t think England were going to beat the All Blacks, but I forgot about Eddie’s magic.” But the 48-year-old won’t be crying into his beer if the Springboks win on Saturday. “Japan lost to South Africa in the quarter-final, so if they go on to win it says a lot about how much Japanese rugby has progressed.”
If Japan have become every neutral’s second-favourite team, their fans’ affections extend to all parts of the rugby world – to Canada, whose players rolled up their sleeves in the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, to southern hemisphere nations whose clubs the Sunwolves have encountered in Super Rugby, and to Six Nations countries where many Japanese have studied and worked.
The idea of supporting any team other than the club and country one is saddled with by accident of birth may be anathema in other countries – particularly in football – but Japanese sports lovers have always been a more generous bunch.
That much was clear from the results of a straw poll the Guardian conducted among members of “rugby family”, a Japanese-language Facebook group. The result might come as a surprise to those who assume the Jones factor guarantees a comfortable majority in favour of England. Out of the 340 responses received 24 hours before kick-off – and with the usual caveats about acceptable margins of error – loyalties were split down the middle, with 170 supporting England and the same number backing the Springboks.
Jones’s previous role as Japan coach was a predictable factor among those plumping for England. Others cited his Japanese ancestry, while a lone voter had been swayed by her admiration for the royal family.
But large numbers came out in favour of the Springboks, precisely because they had sent Japan out of the tournament. There were affectionate words, too, for Faf de Klerk, whom a Japanese sports tabloid described on Friday as the “blond giant-killer”. A surprising number – perhaps as much as a third of voters – said they would cheer on both teams.
Junji Miura, a petroleum company executive whose 10-year-old daughter has just started playing rugby, subscribes to the rose-tinted view of the Jones legacy but will be putting his faith in the Australian’s opposite number, Rassie Erasmus, on Saturday.
“Japan lost to South Africa in the quarter-final so if they go on and win, doesn’t that mean Japan are No 2 in the world?” Miura says, laughing at his understandable, if slightly skewed, logic.
A good proportion of the No Side crowd, like those that have filled World Cup venues over the past six weeks, are women. “I came a couple of times with friends about three years ago and the enthusiasm of all the rugby fans here rubbed off on me,” says Yoko Adachi, a Tokyo resident whose interest in the sport inspired her to become a tournament volunteer.
“England’s performance against the All Blacks was incredible and I suspect they’ll win the final,” Adachi adds. And then she pauses. “But I’m going to support South Africa.”
