Data Deep Dive: Home Prefecture of J League Professional Men's Soccer Players
Which prefectures in Japan tend to produce the most athletes who make it to the J League?
While Shohei Otani does his best to keep baseball, Japan's most popular sport, at the forefront of Japanese sports fans' minds, the national sport of sumo wrestling, with its six major tournaments held around the country each year, is in second place. A close third, however, is soccer, which is rapidly gaining ground.
Although there are regional leagues, the J League, founded in 1993, is the main professional men's soccer league in Japan. It is divided into three tiers, J1, J2, and J3. A total of 1,764 players compete in all three tiers.
While talent is drawn from all over the country, certain prefectures provide more players than others.
Considering that most of Japan's population is concentrated in the major cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, and the areas surrounding Tokyo, it is not surprising that in terms of total numbers, most players come from Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama (Kanagawa Prefecture).
However, it is more interesting to take a closer look at the players' home prefectures per 100,000 people. The national average is 2.9 players per 100,000 people, but the southwestern main island of Kyushu contributes more than its fair share of players.
The prefecture with the most players is Oita in Kyushu, with 5.70 per 100,000 people. In second place is Kumamoto, also in Kyushu, with 5.53. The prefectures in third place and below are Shizuoka (4.87), Kagoshima (4.20), and Tokushima (4.17). In Oita Prefecture, which ranked first, seven out of 30 players are affiliated with Oita Trinita, and in Kumamoto Prefecture, nine out of 45 players are affiliated with Roasso Kumamoto, the local team.
At the other end of the spectrum, Kochi Prefecture has no J League players. The second lowest was Fukui Prefecture (0.13 players) on the Sea of Japan. Three prefectures in the northern part of the Tohoku region on the main island of Honshu round out the rest of the bottom, including Yamagata (0.48 players), Aomori (0.58 players), and Iwate (0.59 players).
As you can see from the map, there are many J League players from Kyushu, Kansai, and Kanto. While other factors are likely relevant, there is a positive correlation with the number of sunny days per year and a negative correlation with the number of snowy days per year. So it seems that there are a lot of J League players from places with good weather and little snow.
While it is true that the weather in Oita and Kumamoto tends to be quite warm and fairly sunny, this environment does not seem to be improving the standings of Oita Trinita and Roasso Kumamoto this year. Oita Trinita was relegated from J1 to J2 in 2022 and is currently ranked 17th out of 20 clubs in J2. Roasso Kumamoto is only slightly better than Oita Trinita and is currently in 16th place in J2. Despite these low rankings, the fans of men's professional soccer in Kyushu are very supportive and remain confident that better days are ahead. (Living in Oita Prefecture, I can attest to this firsthand. Hardly a day goes by without some mention of Oita Trinita on the local evening news.)
Fun fact: The country responsible for supplying the most foreign players to the J League is Brazil with 100 players. South Korea is in second place with 27 players.
If you were a J League recruiter, you now know where to look for the next Keisuke Honda, Yuto Nagatomo, or the legendary Kazuyoshi Miura.
Link to Japanese Source: https://todo-ran.com/t/kiji/10265
#soccer #JLeague #J1 #J2 #J3 #OitaTrinita #RoassoKumamoto #football #futbol #サッカー #Jリーグ #大分トリニータ #ロアッソ熊本
I'm definitely sharing this with some friends!