Why have Japanese players become so attractive to Championship clubs?

Ao Tanaka’s deadline day move from Fortuna Dusseldorf to Leeds United presented something of a calculated risk for his new club.

But after an armful of man-of-the-match awards and an unexpectedly prominent role at the heart of Daniel Farke’s midfield, it has paid off handsomely. The 26-year-old has been a success story for Leeds’ recruitment team, representing a Premier League-quality player signed for remarkable value (a reported €3.5million — £3m; $3.9m).

When he arrived at Elland Road nearly four months ago, the Japan international was the latest in a wave of players from his homeland to sign for EFL clubs over the previous 12 months.

Eight sides of the 24 in the second-tier Championship now boast a Japanese player on their books, while in League One, a further division lower on the ladder, Birmingham City signed Tomoki Iwata and Ayumu Yokoyama in the summer too. So what is behind the trend?

As ever, a combination of factors are at play, as Japanese domestic football’s highest division, the J1 League, becomes an emerging market for clubs in the English league system outside the top flight.

Birmingham’s Ayumu Yokoyama (Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

“The change in work permit rules is the big one,” says Tim Keech, co-founder at MRKT Insights, a consultancy firm that advises EFL clubs on recruitment, among other services. “The post-Brexit rules, with the points-based system, mean the Japanese league has now become somewhere you can shop. Pre-Brexit, under freedom of movement EU rules, you could only really sign full internationals from Japan, you couldn’t sign normal J1 League players.

“So the market has opened up, but clubs are having to be a bit more open to the world rather than waiting for players to play in Europe first because the work permit system wasn’t set up that way.

“Then there are obvious successes from that market. You’ve always had one-off players but a few years ago when Ange Postecoglou arrived at Celtic and signed a few Japanese players, Celtic were winning. There are stereotypes with every market and the question with Japanese players is whether they are physically strong enough to play in British football. Then you see them playing with Celtic and winning titles and that’s a proof point. The success of (Kaoru) Mitoma at Brighton is another case.

“The third factor is that they are relatively affordable. The transfer fees asked for Japanese players are usually in the hundreds of thousands rather than in the multiple millions. The ones who sign straight from Japan are usually cheaper than those from other European or South American countries.”

Tanaka is one of the players to have come to England via a European club, with Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands common initial destinations for J1 League players. Of the 10 Japanese players currently in the EFL, though, four were signed directly from the J1 League in the summer, suggesting a shift in attitude as clubs target emerging talent before they have proven themselves in Europe and become more expensive prospects. Coventry City’s Tatsuhiro Sakamoto was the earliest arrival of the current crop of Japanese players in the EFL after signing from Belgian side KV Oostende in July last year.

Cardiff City are among the clubs to have a former J1 League player on their books in Ryotaro Tsunoda, although the 25-year-old is yet to make his debut for them after an extended spell out with a hamstring injury sustained while on loan at Belgian side Kortrijk. Tsunoda signed for Cardiff from Yokohama F. Marinos in January and was immediately loaned to Kortrijk, where he made nine league appearances last season.

Blackburn’s Yuki Ohashi (Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images)

The shift to recruiting young — often in their early twenties — players directly from the J1 League among EFL teams in the past 12 months has not been matched by their Premier League counterparts. All five Japanese players in the Premier League initially played for clubs in other European nations before heading to England, although the greater financial clout of top-flight teams means they can pay higher fees for more proven players.

“Look at a club like Brighton and they might sign a group of players but they’ll give them time to come through,” a head of recruitment at a Championship club, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, said. “In England, there can be a lack of patience. If a player doesn’t come good in the first six months, (the feeling is) they’re no good. There needs to be that adaptation period.

“What a lot of clubs might try to do is miss out that move to (continental) Europe and go to the source. You might pay £500,000 direct from Japan or £5million from Belgium two years later (for the same player).”

Success stories such as Mitoma, and Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate under Postecoglou at Celtic, also stoke the willingness of EFL clubs, usually with considerably less money to spend than Premier League teams, to take risks. The increase in availability of footage for scouting analysis from the J1 League and second-tier J2 League has aided the process, as clubs with larger scouting networks can cast the net wider to find new talent.

A shift in style of play in the Championship is also a factor, according to Keech.

“It’s more technical than it was 10 years ago,” he says. “You have a lot of managers who play possession-based, short interchange passes, which fits that stereotype of Japanese football that is probably true. If you look at the teams that do well in Japan, it’s the teams that follow on from that Ange Postecoglou style of play, which is the predominant style in Japan. If you’re looking for people used to playing that style of football, it’s a good market and relatively affordable.”

In the assessment of the head of recruitment at one Championship club, the J1 League is generally “more technical than physical. The players do cover ground but they’re very technical with how they play — repetition and improvement”.

Bristol City’s Yu Hirakawa in action against Watford last month (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

In general terms, both the Japan men’s and women’s senior national teams have also played technical and possession-based football, although stereotyping players from one league or region should be treated with caution as Tottenham head coach Postecoglou, who won the J1 League with Yokohama F Marinos in 2019, made clear while he was Celtic boss from 2021-23.

“We have to be careful about just saying ‘four Japanese players’,” he said. “These are four individuals, they are totally different people. If you ever get the chance to meet them, you will see they are totally different people, totally different kinds of players. It is lazy for all of us to say I have just brought in four Japanese.”

While Celtic’s back-to-back title success of 2021-22 and 2022-23, the latter when Furuhashi won the Scottish Premiership’s Golden Boot with 27 goals, will have played its part in showing J1 League recruits can thrive in British football, the success of the national team at the most recent World Cup two years ago also left its mark.

Japan’s entertaining run to the round of 16, beating Germany and Spain in the group stage, came from a 26-man squad who had all featured in the J1 League at some stage in their careers. Six of them now play in Britain, including Tanaka, who scored in the final group game win over Spain to send Japan through to the knockout phase.

😱 @f95 midfielder Ao Tanaka has just eliminated Germany from the #FIFAWorldCup!

Tanaka’s historic winner against Spain earns him hero status in Japan, and tonight’s @Budweiser Player of the Match award.

🇯🇵 #JPNESP 🇪🇸 #POTM #YoursToTake #BringHomeTheBud @budfootball pic.twitter.com/eCpcCePWwd

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 1, 2022

Should Leeds fail to win Premier League promotion again this season, holding onto a player of his talents will be a challenge. Whatever happens, securing his services for a relatively low fee even after three successful seasons playing in Germany is a win for the Elland Road recruitment team.

As the J1 League grows as a key market for Championship teams, the trend of finding promising talent earlier is likely to grow across the leagues.

“Every EFL club has these ESC (Elite Significant Contribution) spots, which make it slightly easier to get visas,” Keech says. “There are strict criteria (to secure visas) but the smarter clubs in the EFL are going to start using those ESC spots on cheap prospects, like a youth international from Ghana. That (making use of ESC spots) is going to be one to watch. It’s better than not using it at all, they’re low-cost but risky signings.

“Africa hasn’t opened up as much, because you can only sign youth internationals. There’s going to be more and more South American moves. Hull have bought players from Ecuador and Colombia. Brazil will probably be the next market to emerge, there’s enough players who can get work permits but Brazil is relatively expensive, so the cheaper South American countries are the ones to watch.”

(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)