Japan declared their intention to host the Women’s World Cup in 2031 to ignite the domestic game and cut the gap on Europe and North America.
In 2011 Japan won the competition but they have since been overtaken, with women’s football booming in Europe in recent years.
“We would like to raise the value of women’s football here,” Japan Football Association president Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said in an interview at JFA headquarters in Tokyo.
Miyamoto was captain of the Japan men’s team when they co-hosted the World Cup with South Korea in 2002, a tournament that helped spark huge interest in football among the Japanese public.
Now 47, he took over as JFA chief this year and has similar hopes for the 2031 Women’s World Cup. The country has never hosted the event.
Japan is likely to face stiff competition for hosting rights however with a joint bid from the United States and Mexico expected. England and China are also reportedly interested.
“We have the WE League, and it has been struggling to gather an audience,” Miyamoto said.
“We would like to increase the number of women players here.”
The professional women’s WE League launched in 2021 but it has failed to attract anything like the attendances and revenue enjoyed by women’s leagues in Europe and the United States.
Japan’s women have not gone beyond the World Cup quarter finals since they lost to the US in the 2015 final.
Miyamoto says Japan “could have done better” to capitalise on the 2011 triumph, which triggered massive interest in women’s football before it quickly fizzled out.
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