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. He is a left-footed forward.

Club career

After graduating from Narashino High School in

Chiba Chiba may refer to: Places China * (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei Japan * Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture ** Chiba Station, a train station * Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...

in 1996, he joined

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 J ...

side

Nagoya Grampus Eight (formerly known as ) is a Japanese association football club that plays in the J1 League, following promotion from the J2 League in 2017. Based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture and founded as the company team of the Toyota Motor Corp. in 1939, the c ...

. He played many matches from 1997 and became a regular player in 1998. He helped the club to win the

Sanwa Bank Cup The Sanwa Bank Cup was a football competition unofficial organised by J.League and sponsored by the Sanwa Bank (predecessor of current MUFG Bank). The competition was held between 1994 and 1997 and played two weeks before the opening of J. League ...

in 1997,

1999 Emperor's Cup Statistics of Emperor's Cup in the 1999 season. Overview It was contested by 80 teams, and Nagoya Grampus Eight won the championship. Results 1st round *Juntendo University 2–0 Aichi Gakuin University *Tochigi SC 0–2 Júbilo Iwata Youth *Ku ...

and the 2nd place

1996–97 Asian Cup Winners' Cup The winners of the 1996 Asian Cup Winners' Cup, the association football competition run by the Asian Football Confederation, are listed below. First round West Asia ''1 Al Qadisiyah withdrew'' East Asia ''1 Old Benedict ...

. However his opportunity to play decreased from 2000. He moved to

FC Tokyo Football Club Tokyo, commonly known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chōfu, Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The team is one of only four in the J.League to be si ...

in August 2001 and

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 ...

in August 2003. He moved to Guaraní in Paraguay in 2004 and debuted in February against Cerro Porteño. He set up the goal for his side in their 3-1 defeat. Starting in 2005, he played for many clubs, including

Pachuca Juniors Club de Fútbol Pachuca Reserves and Academy are the under-20, under-17 and under-15 teams of Mexican Liga MX Pachuca. History Pachuca Juniors played its single season at Primera División A in 2004-05 season. After the season the club license ...

and Irapuato in Mexico, as well as Castellón, Numancia, and Las Palmas in Spain. In August 2008 he moved to Greece and

Ionikos FC Ionikos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Ιωνικός) or Ionikos Nikaia is a Greek professional football club based in Nikaia, Piraeus, Greece, currently competing in the Super League Greece, the top-tier of the Greek football league system. Fr ...

. In September 2009, he returned to Japan and signed with his local club Ehime FC. He played for the club from 2010 season because it was past the deadline of the player's registration for 2009 season. He played many matches as captain in 2010. However his opportunity to play decreased and he left the club at the end of the 2012 season. In 2013, he moved to Hong Kong and signed with

Yokohama FC Hong Kong Metro Gallery Football Club () is a Hong Kong football club which currently competes in the Hong Kong First Division. History The team began as Fourway Athletics (), it joined Hong Kong First Division in 2008–09 season as a competition memb ...

(later ''Metro Gallery''). He played for the club until June 2016 and retired.

National team career

He represented Japan at several underage levels. He was a member of the Japan U-20 national team for the 1997 World Youth Championship hosted by

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. He scored a goal against

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

at the group stage. The team was eliminated at the quarter-final.

Club statistics

References

External links

* * 1977 births Living people Association football people from Ehime Prefecture Japanese men's footballers Japan men's youth international footballers J1 League players J2 League players Nagoya Grampus players FC Tokyo players Vegalta Sendai players Ehime FC players Japanese expatriate men's footballers Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Paraguay Expatriate men's footballers in Paraguay Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Club Guaraní players C.F. Pachuca players C.D. Irapuato footballers CD Castellón footballers CD Numancia players UD Las Palmas players Ionikos F.C. players Hong Kong First Division League players Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong Metro Gallery FC players Footballers at the 1998 Asian Games Men's association football forwards People from Niihama, Ehime Asian Games competitors for Japan Hong Kong League XI representative players {{Japan-footy-forward-1970s-stub