06/18/2002
TOKYO – Japan's soccer fans have formed a sea of blue jerseys, turning
out by the tens of thousands to watch World Cup games on giant video
screens. They cheered, they jumped off bridges, they danced half-naked
in the streets.
On Tuesday, they sobbed in the stands after a goal by Turkey ended
Japan's best performance in the World Cup, reducing the co-host from
surprise contender to dejected spectator.
"It's very disappointing," said Ryo Kawakami, 21, who joined about
50,000 others at Tokyo's Olympic Stadium to cheer the team from afar.
"They really gave their best. This is the first time I've seen the
nation come together like this. ... Now it's over."
At the stadium in Miyagi, the northern Japan city where the game was
played, spectators cried at their seats as the final whistle blew on
Turkey's 1-0 win.
The loss ended a strong performance by Japan, co-host with South Korea
of the first World Cup held in Asia. The final is to be played in
Yokohama on June 30.
The Japanese team advanced to the round of 16 after tying Belgium and
defeating Russia and Tunisia. No host country has been knocked out of
the opening round, and Japan – which lost all three matches in its World
Cup debut four years ago – continued that run, much to the nation's
relief.
Despite the months of trepidation and preparation for an expected influx
of rambunctious, even violent, soccer fans from abroad, the tournament
has been a largely docile affair.
But, with more to cheer than anyone had expected, Japan's fans proved to
be the ones testing police patience.
After Friday's win over Tunisia, thousands packed Tokyo's Shibuya
shopping district, dancing half-naked, spraying beer and lighting
fireworks.
In the western metropolis of Osaka, nearly 900 soccer-crazed fans jumped
off a downtown bridge into the polluted Dotombori River as a sign of
solidarity.
Footage of riot police trying to contain agitated fans, sometimes
tackling them and hauling them away, dominated the evening news.
As of Monday, 64 people had been arrested in Japan for crimes related to
the World Cup. Of those, 40 were Japanese nationals, 12 were Britons and
the remaining 12 people were citizens from a half-dozen other countries,
including the United States.
"It's embarrassing. It's a little more crazy than quiet Japanese people
usually are," said 25-year-old Yu Suzuki, who runs a chocolate-covered
banana stand in Shibuya. He was told by police not to open on Tuesday
for fear that the aluminum poles supporting his tent would be used as a
weapon.
"Why's everybody acting so crazy?" he asked.
In the nightlife quarters of Roppongi, Fatih Yanik was wary how Japanese
fans would react to his four-story Turkish restaurant, festooned for
good measure with both the Turkish crescent moon and the Japanese rising
sun.
"So far there have been no problems," Yanik said. "But nobody should be
able to do anything with all these police around."
Roppongi, a haven for foreign soccer fans with its Irish pubs and German
taverns, has been home to hundreds of Japanese police. They line the
streets after every game and jog to-and-from waiting riot buses in
regimented columns between shifts.
Because of the game's midafternoon start, major companies set up
wide-screen televisions at their office just to keep people at work.
Others simply took time off and paid the $18.50 admission for the
closed-circuit broadcast at National Stadium.