is a Japanese former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who played as a defender. He played for the Japan national team.

Club career

Ichikawa is a product of

Shimizu S-Pulse is a professional Japanese football club. Located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, S-Pulse currently competes in the J2 League (J2). The club was formed in 1991 as a founding member of the J.League (''"Original Ten"''), which be ...

s youth system. He played as right side-back and right midfielder. He made his

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the ...

debut on March 21, 1998, against

Consadole Sapporo is a Japanese professional football club, which plays in the J1 League. The team is based in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido. The club name of "Consadole" is made from ''consado'', a reverse of the Japanese word and the Spanish express ...

. He scored his first league goal against on November 14, 1998, against

JEF United Ichihara , full name and also known as , is a Japanese professional football club that plays in the J2 League. On 1 February 2005, the club changed its name from ''JEF United Ichihara'' to the current name after Chiba city had joined Ichihara, Chiba a ...

. He was still a high school student at that time. He was instrumental in Shimizu winning the second stage of 1999 J1 League, the 1999–2000 Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the

2001 Emperor's Cup Statistics of Emperor's Cup in the 2001 season. Overview It was contested by 80 teams, and Shimizu S-Pulse won the championship. Results 1st Round *Ohara Gakuen JaSRA 1–3 Komazawa University *Juntendo University 3–4 Sagawa Express * Sun Life ...

. The side attack from Ichikawa on the right and Alessandro Santos on the left was Shimizu's main weapon during the period. He left the club end of 2010 season. Toward end of his career, he played for

Ventforet Kofu is a Japanese football club from Kōfu in Yamanashi Prefecture. The team currently competes in the J2 League and play their home games in JIT Recycle Ink Stadium, located in Kōfu. The word "Ventforet" is a compound formed from two French ...

(2011), Mito HollyHock (2012),

Fujieda MYFC are a Japanese J2 League football club based in Fujieda, Shizuoka. It is funded by online subscribers and is the first of its kind in Japan. The club spent two seasons in the Japan Football League before having their application accepted in 20 ...

(2013–14),

FC Imabari FC Imabari (''FC今治'') is a Japanese football club based in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture. They play in the J3 League. History The club was founded in 1976 and were promoted to the Shikoku Football League in 2001. From 2009 to 2011 they were owne ...

(2015) and

Vanraure Hachinohe is a football club based in Hachinohe, a city in the southeastern part of Aomori Prefecture in Japan. They currently play in the J3 League. The name Vanraure comes from the combination of two Italian words: ''derivante'', meaning "origin"; an ...

(2016). He retired end of 2016 season.

International career

Ichikawa represented Japan national team at several underage levels. He made his first full international debut on April 1, 1998, against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

when he was 17 year and 322 days old, which made him the youngest player who represented Japan. Ichikawa was short-listed for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for t ...

, but national coach Takeshi Okada dropped him together with

Kazuyoshi Miura , often known simply as Kazu (nicknamed "King Kazu"), is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters on loan from Yokohama FC. He played for the Japan national team from 199 ...

and Tsuyoshi Kitazawa at the final training camp in

Nyon Nyon (; outdated German: or ; outdated Italian: , ) is a municipality in Nyon District in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Ge ...

, Switzerland. In March 2002, he was elected Japan for the first time in four years by Philippe Troussier. He was also chosen for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

finals and played three games. Against

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

in the group stage, his cross was met by Hidetoshi Nakata who headed home to score Japan's second goal. He was capped ten times without scoring between 1998 and 2002.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
* 1980 births Living people Association football people from Shizuoka Prefecture Japanese footballers Japan international footballers J1 League players J2 League players J3 League players Japan Football League players Shimizu S-Pulse players Ventforet Kofu players Mito HollyHock players Fujieda MYFC players Vanraure Hachinohe players Footballers at the 1998 Asian Games 2002 FIFA World Cup players Association football defenders Asian Games competitors for Japan {{Japan-footy-defender-1980s-stub