Has English hooliganism disease finally infected Japanese football?

When Qatar hosted the 2022 Fifa World Cup, the Japanese fans who stayed behind after matches to collect rubbish left in the stadiums caught the eye of the media and won the admiration of the onlooking world.

It was the same when Japan took part in the Women’s World Cup in Australasia this year.

Interviewed about why they were picking up other people’s trash, Japan fans said it was a question of respect for their hosts and simply the right thing to do.

While fans of the national team are winning plaudits abroad, however, supporters at domestic matches are making headlines for the wrong reasons.

The Japan Football Association (JFA) on August 31 announced that 17 fans of Urawa Red Diamonds would serve indefinite bans from domestic matches as a result of violent conduct at an Emperor’s Cup match against Nagoya Grampus Eight.

Urawa lost last month’s match 3-0, while a group of their fans were filmed entering a buffer zone that segregated rival supporters, assaulting a security guard and pushing him to the ground, attacking at least one Nagoya fan and tearing down supporters’ banners.

The club initially issued indefinite bans for 32 supporters, with a further 45 given warnings as to their future behaviour. The JFA is due to announce its punishment later this month.

“It is extremely regrettable that the match-watching environment was disrupted by some mindless supporters,” JFA chairman Kozo Tashima said. “They significantly disturbed the entire footballing community’s drive to spread an environment in which fans can enjoy football safely and securely.”

Urawa were in hot water with the authorities last year when groups of fans repeatedly mobbed the team bus as it arrived at stadiums, failing to comply with Covid-19 guidelines. The JFA fined the club a record-equalling Y20 million (US$135,000).

They also have a record of hooliganism, being fined US$185,000 in 2008 for violent clashes with Gamba Osaka fans. Gamba were fined US$92,000 for an incident that the authorities described as the worst outbreak of violence at a game since the J-League was launched in 1993.

In 2017, Kawasaki Frontale were disciplined by the Court of Arbitration for Sport when fans displayed an Imperial Japanese flag at a match in South Korea. The 16-ray rising sun flag, used by the Japanese military during the occupation of the Korean peninsula in the last century, nearly caused a riot, according to reports. The club were fined US$15,000 and placed on probation.

Long-time watchers of the J-League attribute recent issues in stadiums to factors including pent-up passion after the pandemic, and incidents attracting more attention now that footage can be on social media in an instant.

Perhaps more worrying is the perception that Japanese fans believe imitating the violence of counterparts in South America and Europe is an appropriate way to show support.

“It is said that Urawa’s fans are the most fanatical in Japan and probably all of Asia, and part of that is probably based on imitating the ‘ultra’ fans they see in parts of Europe and South America,” football journalist Yoichi Igawa said.

“Sometimes it does get overheated and overexcited and there have been discriminatory banners and misbehaviour in the stadiums, but to them it is showing how much they love the club.”

With gates increasing, there is potential for more incidents.

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“J-League teams are attracting record crowds and the league is successful, so obviously more people are gathering together and therefore there may be more problems,” Igawa said.

“I think one of the reasons the situation has changed is the lifting of restrictions after the coronavirus. People want to go out, they want to feel free and scream and shout.”

Sean Carroll, a British journalist who covers the J-League, said incidents were largely isolated and did not come close to the violence that marred British football in the 1970s and 1980s.

But there are parallels, he said, citing Japanese “ultras” who modelled themselves on fans of West Ham United – notorious for their Inter City Firm of hooligans – and Millwall’s Bushwackers, even down to wearing Fred Perry shirts.

“So much of Japanese society is organised and friendly and you see that in the football stadiums, but then you have this subculture,” Carroll said. “Some of these Urawa fans just want to set themselves up as bad boys.”

He said it was nothing like in Europe, where fans need to be wary of where they go for a prematch pint.

“You very rarely see anything here that even borders on being dangerous,” he said. “I just think we are seeing it more because social media is everywhere and instantaneous and that is forcing clubs to look into the problem.”