is a former

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player. She played for Japan national team.

Club career

Shimokozuru was born in Nagaokakyo on 7 June 1982. In 1999, she joined Matsushita Electric Panasonic Bambina (later ''Speranza FC Takatsuki'') from youth team. In 2005, she graduated from

Kansai University , abbreviated as or , is a private non-sectarian and coeducational university with its main campus in Suita, Osaka, Japan and two sub-campuses in Sakai and Takatsuki, Osaka. Founded as Kansai Law School in 1886, It has been recognized as one o ...

and moved to

Tasaki Perule FC was a women's football team which played in Division 1 of Japan's Nadeshiko League. It founded the league back in 1976. The club was disbanded in 2008. Honors Domestic competitions * Nadeshiko.League Division 1 **Champions (1) : 2003 **Runn ...

. She was selected Best Eleven in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. However, in 2008, the club was disbanded due to financial strain and she retired. In May 2009, she came back at Speranza FC Takatsuki. In 2010, she moved to

TEPCO Mareeze was a women's football team which played in Division 1 of Japan's Nadeshiko League. It founded the league back in 2000 and disbanded in 2011. It evolved into Vegalta Sendai Ladies in 2012. Results Transition of team name *YKK Tohoku L ...

. However, the club was disbanded for

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

in 2011. She moved to new club

Vegalta Sendai is a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in J2 League. The team is located in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. History Founded in 1988 as ''Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. Soccer Club'', Vegalta joined the J-League in 1999 after p ...

and played as captain. She retired end of 2013 season.

National team career

In April 2004, Shimokozuru was selected Japan national team for 2004 Summer Olympics qualification. At this competition, on 18 April, she debuted against

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. She was a member of Japan for

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. She also played at

, 2008 Asian Cup and

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. She played 28 games for Japan until 2008.Japan Football Association
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National team statistics

References

External links

* * * * http://www.gettyimages.ae/photos/aya-shimokozuru?excludenudity=true&sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=aya%20shimokozuru 1982 births Living people Kansai University alumni Association football people from Kyoto Prefecture Japanese women's footballers Japan women's international footballers Olympic footballers for Japan Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 2006 Asian Games Women's association football defenders Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games {{Japan-footy-defender-1980s-stub