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.

Playing career

Ihara was born in

Saga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of 809,248 (1 August 2020) and has a geographic area of 2,440 km2 (942 sq mi). Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasak ...

on 8 March 1973. After graduating from high school, he joined NKK in 1991. Although he played in many matches, the club was disbanded at the end of the 1993 season. In 1994, he moved to the

Japan Football League The also known as simply the JFL is the 4th tier of the Japanese association football league system, positioned beneath the three divisions of the J.League. The league features fully professional teams that hold J.League associate membership am ...

(JFL) club

Kyoto Purple Sanga is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Kyoto. "Sanga" comes from the Sanskrit word ''sangha'', a term meaning "group" or "club" and often used to denote the Buddhist priesthood, associating the club with Kyoto ...

. He played often as a defensive midfielder from 1994 and the club was promoted to the

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 ...

in 1996. While there, he mainly played as center back. In 1998, he moved to the JFL club Sagan Tosu based in his local league. The club was promoted to the

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yas ...

in 1999. He played in many matches as a defensive midfielder until early in the 2000 season and as a center back of a three backs defense from the middle of the 2000 season. In 2001, he moved to

Shonan Bellmare is a Japanese professional football club based in Hiratsuka, in the west of Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Hiratsuka ...

. He played in many matches as a defensive midfielder and as a center back for three seasons and retired at the end of the 2003 season.

Club statistics

References

External links

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kyotosangadc
1973 births Living people Association football people from Saga Prefecture Japanese footballers Japan Soccer League players J1 League players J2 League players Japan Football League (1992–1998) players NKK SC players Kyoto Sanga FC players Sagan Tosu players Shonan Bellmare players Men's association football defenders {{Japan-footy-defender-1970s-stub