The sporting landscape in Japan is showing no sign of slowing down as the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games drift into distant memories.
随着东京奥运会和残奥会渐渐成为遥远的记忆，日本的体育界并没有显示出放缓的迹象。
In September, more sporting history was made with the launch of the Women’s Empowerment League, or the WE League, which brings a new professional tier to women’s soccer in Japan with 11 teams playing in venues throughout the country.
9月，随着妇女赋权联盟（或称WE联盟）的启动，创造了更多的体育历史，该联盟为日本的女子足球带来了一个新的职业层级，有11支球队在全国各地进行比赛。
To build formidable teams, part of the WE League’s goal is to attract foreign talent from within the top 12 teams in the FIFA women’s world rankings. Players from countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. are being prioritized. The strategy is as much built on revenue-generation as team building: the more international players who are on the WE League’s rosters, the more it gains visibility. The more diversity of play on the field, with foreign players bringing different skill sets, the more the performance bar gets raised and domestic talent can improve. And the more people who attend on match day to see the quality on display, the greater the revenue to create a thriving league.
为了建立强大的团队，WE联盟的部分目标是吸引来自国际足联女足世界排名前12名球队中的外国人才。来自法国、德国、荷兰和美国等国家的球员正被优先考虑。这一战略是建立在创收和团队建设的基础上的：WE联盟名单上的国际球员越多，它就越能获得知名度。球场上的比赛越多样化，外国球员带来了不同的技能组合，表现的标准就越高，国内人才就越能得到提高。越多的人在比赛日看到高质量的比赛，就会有越多的收入来创造一个繁荣的联赛。
WE League chairwoman Kikuko Okajima, a former player and founder of Japan’s women’s national team, has taken a hands-on approach to try to personally ensure success. Earlier this year, Okajima visited the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and met with Anson Dorrance, a former U.S. women’s national team head coach and winner of 21 NCAA titles as UNC’s head women’s soccer coach. Dorrance facilitated meetings between Okajima and some of the UNC players. This has resulted in the likelihood that, next year, the WE League will take two students who play soccer for UNC post-graduation. Going forward, the WE League intends to have someone stationed in the U.S. in order to actively recruit players from American universities. Okajima also sat down with senior executives at NWSL club the North Carolina Courage to gauge player interest in going to Japan.
WE联盟主席冈岛菊子（Kikuko Okajima）曾是日本女子国家队的球员和创始人，她采取了亲力亲为的方式，试图亲自确保成功。今年早些时候，冈岛访问了北卡罗来纳大学（UNC）教堂山分校，并与前美国女子国家队主教练、作为UNC女子足球主教练获得21个NCAA冠军的Anson Dorrance会面。多伦斯促成了冈岛和一些UNC球员之间的会面。这使得明年WE联盟有可能接收两名毕业后为UNC踢球的学生。展望未来，WE联盟打算派人驻扎在美国，以积极招募美国大学的球员。冈岛还与NWSL俱乐部北卡罗来纳勇气队的高级管理人员进行了会谈，以了解球员对去日本的兴趣。
This boots-on-the-ground approach in the U.S. is a natural for Okajima, who has resided in Baltimore, Md. for over 30 years (Japan doesn’t allow for dual citizenship). Though she had an expansive career in finance before retiring in 2019, Okajima was also a pioneering figure in Japanese women’s soccer long before the WE League came into existence.
在美国，这种脚踏实地的做法对冈岛来说是很自然的，她已经在马里兰州巴尔的摩居住了30多年（日本不允许双重国籍）。虽然她在2019年退休前在金融领域有一个广阔的职业生涯，但在WE联盟出现之前，冈岛也是日本女子足球的先驱人物。
Women’s soccer began to take off in Asia in the mid-seventies, she says. While in college around this time, Okajima played for FC Jinnan, Japan’s first women’s soccer club. At the time, the JFA didn’t perceive women’s soccer as particularly viable, but the team was allowed to participate in an international tournament in Taiwan. Okajima saw other Asian countries, like Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand, sending their national teams, while Japan simply sent the club team that had won the championship in the previous season. That spurred Okajima to work to form a national team for Japan.
她说，70年代中期，女子足球开始在亚洲兴起。大约在这个时候，冈岛在大学里为日本第一个女子足球俱乐部FC Jinnan效力。当时，日本足协并不认为女子足球特别可行，但该队被允许参加在台湾举行的国际比赛。冈岛看到其他亚洲国家，如香港、新加坡和泰国，都派出了他们的国家队，而日本只是派出了在前一个赛季赢得冠军的俱乐部球队。这促使冈岛努力为日本组建一支国家队。
Within two years of the international tournament in Taiwan, the JFA allowed women soccer players to register with it for the first time, and by 1979, more than 900 women players and 53 teams were officially registered across the country.
在台湾举行国际比赛的两年内，日本足协首次允许女性足球运动员在该协会注册，到1979年，全国有900多名女球员和53支球队正式注册。
For the WE League, which ranks above the Nadeshiko League, the top women’s amateur league that was founded in 1989, talks with potential sponsors began in 2018. As it began to formalize and Okajima was asked to take on greater responsibilities, it was the pandemic that allowed her to step into the leadership role from her home in Maryland with greater ease as business dealings were increasingly moving online. One of the reasons she decided to take on the chairperson position is because of her life spent on American soil.
对于排名在1989年成立的顶级女子业余联赛Nadeshiko League之上的WE League来说，与潜在赞助商的会谈始于2018年。随着它开始正规化，冈岛被要求承担更大的责任，由于业务往来越来越多地在网上进行，正是这种大流行病使她能够在马里兰州的家中更轻松地走上领导岗位。她决定担任主席职务的原因之一是她在美国本土度过的生活。
“I would love to help women’s soccer prosper in Japan,” said Okajima. “There’s a huge difference in popularity with women’s soccer between the U.S. and Japan — and because I see how successful women’s soccer is in the U.S., I thought I could import ideas and strategies to help the sport grow in Japan.”
"冈岛说："我很想帮助女子足球在日本蓬勃发展。"美国和日本的女子足球在受欢迎程度上存在巨大差异--因为我看到了女子足球在美国是多么成功，我想我可以引进想法和策略来帮助这项运动在日本发展。"
With those objectives in mind, the Japan Football Association (JFA) devised a strategy to offer money to its clubs in order to help with the recruitment of players. The JFA also asked all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, to name a few national team players who may be interested in coming to Japan.
考虑到这些目标，日本足球协会（JFA）制定了一项战略，向其俱乐部提供资金，以帮助招募球员。日本足协还要求东南亚国家联盟（ASEAN）的所有成员，包括菲律宾、泰国和越南，说出几个可能有兴趣来日本的国家队球员。
JEF United Chiba, as one example, acquired Quinley Quezada, a forward for the Philippines national team. Quezada is an American-born Filipina who played at the University of California, Riverside. Since then, she has participated in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and the AFF Women’s Championship.
JEF千叶联队作为一个例子，收购了菲律宾国家队的前锋昆利-奎萨达。Quezada是一个在美国出生的菲律宾人，在加州大学河滨分校踢球。此后，她参加了亚足联女子亚洲杯和亚足联女子锦标赛。
The JFA provides a supplement, roughly $30,000 per player annually, in addition to player salaries to hire translators and interpreters. “The JFA wants to have a mixture of different races and cultures to make Japanese soccer more inclusive,” said Okajima, adding that Australia international Alex Chidiac also plays for JEF United Chiba. Meanwhile, American striker Grace Cutler (pictured above), who was drafted by the Houston Dash in 2019, is playing for Omiya Ardija Ventus. On Oct. 2, she became the first non-Japanese player to score in the WE League.
日本足协在球员工资之外还提供了一笔补贴，大约为每名球员每年30,000美元，用于聘请翻译和口译人员。"日本足协希望有不同种族和文化的混合，以使日本足球更具包容性，"冈岛说，并补充说，澳大利亚国脚亚历克斯-奇迪克也在JEF千叶联队效力。与此同时，美国前锋格蕾丝-卡特勒（Grace Cutler）（如上图）在2019年被休斯顿短跑队选中，正在为大宫Ardija Ventus效力。10月2日，她成为第一个在WE联赛中得分的非日本球员。
Okajima emphasized that the WE also stands for “we.”
冈岛强调，WE也代表 "我们"。
“‘We’ means anyone interested in women’s soccer, i.e. fans, supporters, players, partner companies and local communities where clubs are located,” Okajima said. “We also try to embrace the LGBTQ community. There are a number of gay women socer players and we want to make sure they feel comfortable as they are.”
"'我们'是指任何对女子足球感兴趣的人，即球迷、支持者、球员、合作公司和俱乐部所在的当地社区，"冈岛说。"我们还试图拥抱LGBTQ社区。有一些同性恋女足球员，我们想确保他们感到舒适，因为他们是。"
The league itself is also contributing money — approximately $31,000 per foreign player who is not a part of ASEAN, but from the top-12 countries in the FIFA rankings. The initial thought was to select from the under-20 and under-17 categories. But Okajima says that some of its top clubs, like NTV Tokyo Verdy Beleza and Urawa Reds Ladies, don’t want to bring in foreign players yet, freeing up extra money in the league’s budget. “So we decided to loosen a little bit of that condition,” she said. “Even if they haven’t played at the national team level, so long as the technical skill is there, then we will pay money to the club to hire them.”
联赛本身也在出钱--每个不属于东盟的外国球员约31,000美元，但来自国际足联排名前12的国家。最初的想法是从20岁以下和17岁以下的类别中选择。但冈岛说，它的一些顶级俱乐部，如NTV东京维迪贝莱萨和浦和红军女队，还不想引进外国球员，这样可以在联赛的预算中释放出额外的资金。"所以我们决定把这个条件放宽一点，"她说。"即使他们没有参加过国家队的比赛，只要技术水平在那里，那么我们就会向俱乐部支付钱来雇佣他们。"
The hope is that the import of foreign talent will usher in a wider audience while also helping players in a variety of ways.
希望外国人才的引进能迎来更多的观众，同时也能在多方面帮助球员。
“Unless you are selected for (Japan’s) national team, you don’t have a lot of opportunity to play against physically different players,” she said. “If you have at least one (foreign) player on the team, you get to experience how to deal with them on the field. It’s really good for the overall skill-level increase for domestic players.”
"除非你被选入（日本）国家队，否则你没有很多机会与身体不同的球员比赛，"她说。"如果你的队伍中至少有一名（外国）球员，你就能体验到如何在球场上与他们打交道。这对国内球员的整体技能水平提高真的很有好处。"
Okajima said that Japan’s women’s league was the top ranked globally in the 1990s. The economic boom in the 1980s meant that a lot of companies had extra money to spend. “So they paid top dollars for top players all over the world,” she recalled. “We had players from the U.S., Norway, Denmark, China — senior-level players. So that skill level really increased. I talked to some of those players who said that helped a great deal when they played against those rival countries as a national team player.” She aims to replicate that with the WE League.
冈岛说，日本的女子联赛在1990年代是全球排名第一的。1980年代的经济繁荣意味着很多公司有多余的钱可以花。"她回忆说："因此，他们为世界各地的顶级球员支付了高额费用。"我们有来自美国、挪威、丹麦、中国的球员--高级别的球员。因此，技术水平真的提高了。我和其中一些球员谈过，他们说当他们作为国家队球员与这些对手国家比赛时，这对他们有很大的帮助。" 她的目标是在WE联盟中复制这一点。
While COVID-19 helped to foster the league’s foundational growth, Okajima does highlight that Japan has gotten more strict about quarantine, as evidenced during the Olympic Games. The solve thus far has been to rent one floor of a hotel for players coming in from abroad “so we can exist in a bubble.”
虽然COVID-19帮助促进了联盟的基础性增长，但冈岛确实强调，日本在检疫方面变得更加严格，这在奥运会期间得到了证明。到目前为止，解决的办法是为从国外来的球员租用酒店的一个楼层，"这样我们就可以存在于一个泡沫中"。
“We are working with the ministry of sports and adapting to its changing rules, as dictated by the pandemic,” she added. This does indicate a tougher stance on visas, which may stall plans for the time being.
"她补充说："我们正在与体育部合作，并适应其不断变化的规则，这是由大流行病所决定的。这确实表明在签证方面采取了更强硬的立场，这可能使计划暂时停滞。
Transforming Japan’s soccer landscape takes other forms, as well. Looking to the U.S. model, Okajima says the WE League aspires to alter the country’s current base of males aged 30-60 attending matches to include more families. As a part of this effort, the WE League will be working with local football associations to host soccer clinics for kids.
改造日本的足球环境还需要其他形式。冈岛说，参照美国的模式，WE联盟希望改变日本目前30-60岁男性参加比赛的基础，以包括更多的家庭。 作为这一努力的一部分，WE联盟将与当地的足球协会合作，为孩子们举办足球训练班。
“We need to focus on the people who are not traditional soccer fans,” Okajima said. “If kids can learn soccer from some of the actual players, they may want to see them play on game day in the stadium.”
"我们需要关注那些不是传统足球爱好者的人，"冈岛说。"如果孩子们能从一些实际的球员身上学习足球，他们可能会想在比赛日在球场上看到他们的比赛。"
The overall goal for the 2021 season is to have 5,000 people on average in attendance at the stadiums (in 2019, before COVID-19 hit, the Nadeshiko League averaged 1,300 fans per match). That’s no small task given the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. But perhaps the emphasis currently is on the need to bring in a new group of viewers. Beyond stadium attendance, the WE League is getting a lift from DAZN, a global subscription sports video streaming service. In July it signed an eight-season deal with the WE League as its domestic broadcast partner. DAZN will air 110 matches across 22 fixture rounds. DAZN will also stream select WE League matches on its social media channels, including YouTube, for free.
2021年赛季的总体目标是让球场平均有5000人入场（在2019年，在COVID-19袭击之前，抚琴联盟平均每场比赛有1300名球迷）。鉴于大流行病的不确定性，这不是一项小任务。但也许目前的重点是需要带来一批新的观众。除了体育场的上座率，WE联盟还得到了全球订阅体育视频流媒体服务DAZN的支持。7月，它与WE联盟签署了一份为期8个赛季的协议，作为其国内广播合作伙伴。DAZN将在22轮比赛中播放110场比赛。DAZN还将在其社交媒体渠道（包括YouTube）上免费播放部分WE联盟的比赛。
Executives among some of the country’s other sporting bodies have said that if the league fails, so too will the prospects of women’s sports in Japan. People like Taeko Utsugi, vice president of the Softball Association, and Hiroko Tanaka, president of the Women’s Baseball Federation of Japan, have been strongly encouraging Okajima, however.
日本其他一些体育机构的高管表示，如果联赛失败，日本女性体育的前景也会受到影响。然而，像垒球协会副主席Taeko Utsugi和日本女子棒球联盟主席Hiroko Tanaka这样的人一直在大力鼓励冈岛。
“They are really counting on us to be successful in making women’s sports in Japan more popular,” she says. If it is successful, the WE League has the scope to be a driving force for positive change in Japanese society and another avenue for women from around the world to play professional soccer.
"她说："他们真的指望我们能成功地使日本的女性运动更受欢迎。如果成功的话，WE联盟有可能成为日本社会积极变革的推动力，并成为世界各地的女性踢职业足球的另一个渠道。
(Photo: Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images)
(Photo: Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images)