American football is a sport played in Japan. Introduced in the 1930s, the sport has grown into one of the most popular in the country. Each team is only allowed to have three Americans per team.

History

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

was introduced in the early 1930s back when Paul Rusch, a teacher and missionary from

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, who came to Japan in 1925 to help rebuild following the 1923 earthquake, George Marshall, an athletic teacher at Tokyo based Rikkyo University, and two military attaches at the US embassy, Alexander George and Merritt Booth, helped to form the first football teams at three universities in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

(Waseda, Meiji, Rikkyo). In November 1934, the first football game was played between an all-star team of the three Tokyo universities and a team of the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club consisting of Americans and Britons living in Japan. The Japanese college team won the game. In 1937, a game between college all-star teams from eastern and western Japan drew a crowd of about 25,000 spectators. The reason for the success of the rough North American game in mild-mannered Japan might be that American Football offers a combination of power, technical precision, discipline and team spirit that is hard to find in other sports and that most parts of this combination (precision, discipline, team spirit) match well with traditional Japanese values. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(1939–1945), American football in Japan came to a halt. However, soon after the war, football in Japan resumed. Rusch, who had earlier left Japan for the war, returned in 1945. During the following years, high school and junior high school teams were formed. Today, more than 17,000 players participate in a national competition for about 400 teams. There are two college football leagues, the Kanto League with teams from eastern Japan and the Kansai League with teams from western Japan. Each league has different divisions. The Division I of the Kanto League has two Conferences (A and B). The champions of the two leagues battle for the college championship in the Koshien Bowl. The highest level of American Football in Japan is the X-League, an amateur league consisting of true company teams and club teams sponsored by companies. The company league was founded in 1981; since 1996, it has been called the X-League. Like the college leagues, the X-League has different divisions. The Division I has three regional divisions (East, Central, West). The two top teams of each division advance to the playoffs, called the Final 6. The championship game is called Japan X Bowl and is held in December. The X-League champion then plays against the college champion in the Rice Bowl for the Japanese national championship.

Organization

Professional

The X-League is the highest level of football in Japan. In recent years, professionals from overseas have played in the X-League, including former NFL quarterback

Devin Gardner Devin Jaymes Gardner (born December 14, 1991) is a former American football quarterback. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the New England Patriots. He played professionally in Japan for two seasons. Gardner was the starting quarterba ...

. All players in the league are amateur.

University and collegiate

College football in Japan, often played at the club level, is made up of eight leagues, spanning all four islands. The East and West champions play in the annual

Koshien Bowl The Koshien Bowl (甲子園ボウル) is the annual Japanese American college football national championship game, usually played in December at Koshien Stadium. From the 1949 season until 2008 season, the game was held as the final game of Japan ...

Nishinomiya 270px, Nishinomiya City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Nishinomiya city center 270px, Hirota Shrine is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 484,368 in 218948 households and a population density of 48 ...

East (東日本)

Kantoh Collegiate American Football Association The Kantoh Collegiate American Football Association is an American college football league made up of colleges and universities in the Kanto region of Japan. Overview The Kantoh League is a major college football league in eastern Japan. The lea ...

Hokkaido American Football Association The Hokkaido American Football Association (北海道アメリカンフットボール協会) or HAFA is an American college football league made up of colleges and universities on the island of Hokkaido, Japan is Japan, Japan's Japanese arch ...

Tohoku Collegiate American Football Association The Tohoku Collegiate American Football Association (東北学生アメリカンフットボール連盟) is an American college football league made up of colleges and universities in northeastern part of Honshu , historically called , is the ...

West (西日本)

Chushikoku Collegiate American Football Association The Chushikoku Collegiate American Football Association (中四国学生アメリカンフットボール連盟) is an American college football league made up of colleges and universities primarily on the island of Shikoku; two schools are locat ...

Hokuriku Collegiate American Football League The Hokuriku Collegiate American Football League (北陸学生アメリカンフットボール連盟) is an American college football league made up of colleges and universities in the Hokuriku region of Japan. The winner of the Hokuriku league ...

Kansai Collegiate American Football League The Kansai Collegiate American Football League (関西学生アメリカンフットボール連盟) is an American college football league made up of fifty-three colleges and universities in the Kansai region of Japan. Overview The Kansai L ...

Kyūshū Collegiate American Football Association The Kyūshū Collegiate American Football Association (九州学生アメリカンフットボール連盟) is an American college football league made up of colleges and universities primarily on the island of Kyushu, Japan; one school is locate ...

Tokai Collegiate American Football Association The Tokai American Football Association (東海学生アメリカンフットボール連盟) (sometimes stylized as the "ToKai") is an American college football league made up of colleges and universities in the Tōkai region of Japan ...

The winners of the

Japan X Bowl The Japan X Bowl (previously the Japan Super Bowl) was the annual championship game of the X-League, the highest level of professional American football in Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country ...

and

play each other in the

Rice Bowl The breadbasket of a country or of a region is an area which, because of the richness of the soil and/or advantageous climate, produces large quantities of wheat or other grain. Rice bowl is a similar term used to refer to Southeast Asia; and C ...

Japan national American football team

References

External links

American Football in JapanJapan American Football Association
{{X-League