Japanese players have become an increasingly familiar sight in England, but this season marks a new high: a record 10 of them were registered in the Premier League when the campaign kicked off last weekend.
Their growing presence reflects more than just a talent pipeline. English clubs now see Japanese players as reliable, good value and, crucially, a low-risk signing.
That shift is visible in this summer’s arrivals. Zion Suzuki has joined Aston Villa, former Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu is back in London with Crystal Palace, Hidemasa Morita has signed for Hull City and Daizen Maeda has left Celtic for Ipswich Town.
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They enter a league already shaped by established Japanese names such as Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma, Liverpool’s Wataru Endo and Palace’s Daichi Kamada.
FIFA-registered agent Joel Pannick of CAA Base said English clubs have “increased confidence that signing a Japanese player is a good move to make”.
“There aren’t many examples of clubs signing Japanese players and having issues with their adaptation, with their personality, with their integration into the squad, with discipline,” said Pannick, who has about 60 Japanese players on his books.
“The risk element that teams previously feared, this fear of the unknown, has gone because with each example of a successful Japanese player it gives more confidence,” he added.
Among the other Japanese players in the Premier League are Ao Tanaka at Leeds, Kota Takai at Spurs and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto at Coventry.
Tanaka, who has played 41 times for Japan, joined from German side Fortuna Dusseldorf for just 3.3 million pounds (now US$4.5 million) two years ago.
For Japanese football, the rise has been a long time coming. Junichi Inamoto’s move to Arsenal in 2001 ended without a league appearance, but later successes from Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Okazaki, Takumi Minamino and Endo helped change perceptions.
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Suzuki, 24, could take that evolution a step further. If he makes his debut for Villa, he will become the first Japanese goalkeeper to play in the Premier League.
Veteran Japanese football journalist Yoshiyuki Osumi says he is “10 or 20 years ahead of his time for a Japanese goalkeeper”.
“If he can play in the Premier League as a goalkeeper, I think that would have a big impact on Japanese football,” said Osumi.
Language and integration have also become part of the story. Suzuki already speaks English, and that is increasingly seen as essential for Japanese players hoping to succeed in Europe.
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Pannick says that Maya Yoshida helped push that cultural change when he captained Japan ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Yoshida, who spent almost eight years at Southampton, would insist that any player who sat at his lunch table must communicate in English.
“To get this more worldly mentality is something that he was very keen to emphasise to the players,” said Pannick.
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“This current generation of starting national team players or squad players at the World Cup, almost all of them now will speak English to a pretty good degree.”
Most Japanese players still take a detour through other European leagues such as Belgium, the Netherlands or Portugal before reaching the Premier League.
The Championship has also become a common stepping stone, and there are currently eight Japanese players in England’s second tier.
Post-Brexit work permit rules have forced English clubs to scout more widely, while the overall quality of Japanese players has improved.
Osumi says the style of the Premier League itself has also helped.
“The Premier League has become more tactical, and there are more teams that play as a coordinated unit,” he said.
“That kind of football is something Japanese players find very easy to adapt to.”
