London Japanese

Over the years, the players and members of one London merit table club have helped Rugby World Cups happen, captained and coached their country, and had games attended by politicians, Lords and dignitaries. But for London Japanese all that matters is one thing: ‘tasty beers’.

On a rugby pitch lined with Japanese cherry blossom trees, albeit ones still months away from bursting into their famed vibrant pink floral fireworks, a Japanese crowd fill the sidelines of Richmond FC. It is the Championship club’s second team pitch, where around 150 or so Japanese expats from across London and Europe, Japanese fans in town for England v Japan down the road, and even a handful of dignitaries, including Hayashi Hajime, the Japanese Ambassador to the UK, are transfixed on a vets game being played out. 

On one side, a brutish Lords and Commons RUFC, attempting to steamroller through their opponents; on the other, London Japanese Vets, a side sprinkled with some light-footed, dazzling talent, albeit in its twilight years. The call-to-arms for players to the Japanese side has been answered in spades, as more than forty players have arrived, representing not only the local London Japanese side, but also their European city brethren: Paris Japanese, Amsterdam Japanese and Dusseldorf Japanese. 

The game is lost by London Japanese, but given Hayashi Hajime does a speech at the end, it’s an occasion for the players nonetheless. Satoshi Takehana, at 47, and having joined in 2006, is the longest-serving player, but manages only a handful of minutes before coming off with a broken shoulder. “In my last five games, I’ve come off with broken bones twice, this shoulder and then my foot,” he rues from the back of an ambulance. “I joined London Japanese after getting a contact from an old university friend that played for Paris Japanese, although I’d already read about them in Rugby Magazine in Japan – the club is quite known in rugby society.

“For Japanese people, it’s quite a strong network outside of work,” he adds. 

While you may never had heard of Satoshi Takehana, he is arguably the most connected rugby writer in England, with a monthly one-on-one with none other than Eddie Jones. “One of our former players, Tame, went to university with the editor of Rugby Magazine and so when Eddie came to England, I said, ‘tell your friend, if you want someone to speak to Eddie in English and then translate into Japanese, I’ll do it’.”

Sure enough, Tame did just that. “And now, every month since 1 January 2016, I’ve had a one-on-one talk with Eddie, sometimes on the phone, sometimes at Pennyhill. He still loves Japan and having a connection with Japan.”

Not only have London Japanese helped careers – older members are also known to find jobs for younger players, new to the city – but it’s created a home for the wider family too. “It’s quite sociable,” continues Satoshi. “You can hang out with diplomats at Japan Embassy, you get free sake, and non-playing people join in this community too. Japanese guys with families become friends, and so do their wives and kids, it’s quite a strong community and wide too.”

London Japanese were formed in 1979, although it took them two years to actually get around to playing a game of rugby, an early indicator of priorities. Another indicator was that their first regular ‘clubhouse’ was a pub in the basement of Lillywhites in Piccadilly Circus. The Japanese rugby community has always been closely connected and so when Noboru Watanabe, the one-time owner of Yoisho ramen bar in Fitzrovia (a regular haunt for the club before it closed recently), discovered ex-Japan wing Makoto Mizutani (four caps), and former scrum-half Hiroaki Shukuzawa (who would go on to coach Japan) were in town – not to mention Hiromu Hibino, a renowned coach back in Japan – he brought them together over a few Japanese lagers. It became a regular occurrence, and their shared passion for the sport led quickly to the formation of a rugby club, London Japanese in 1979. The numbers at their gatherings swelled to the point where they figured they should probably play a game of rugby.

It wasn’t as if the club hadn’t played at all: they’d added to their weekday drinking sessions a game of touch on a patch of Regent’s Park next to London Zoo on Saturdays, right near the flat of Hiroaki, who would then welcome the players into his home post-session.

News of the club spread quickly, even to the homeland, with the Japanese daily sports paper, Sankei Sports reporting: ‘A Japanese rugby team had been started two years ago, but there were not enough members and they only practised a few times a year. Alcohol is a great mediator. [and these players], who can’t be said to hate alcohol, when drinking with friends after work, started chatting about rugby to Mizutani who happened to be there too’.

When they made it onto the pitch, in 1981, two years after they formed, it was against Epsom, but even then, they adopted a casual approach. A 2.30pm kick off was delayed to 3pm. Their response when questioned about the delay was telling: “The pub is open until 2.30pm so we were drinking. We’ll play from 3pm.”

They would lose 46-22, scoring five tries even in defeat – a reflection of a cavalier style that has stood them in good stead and been a trademark ever since. Another trademark that day, was the 50 spectators on the side-line. Even from day one, the club has always gained support far above its rugby merit status. One difficulty for the club was the physical challenge of English rugby, even the experienced Hiroaki remarked of first encounter with Epsom: “English rugby players have big shoulders.”

In Richmond, the second game of the day sees the London Japanese first team face Kew Occasionals, a strong invitational side including more than a clutch of Oxford University Blues within the ranks. The two sides face each other every year in honour of the late Katsuhiko Oku. The first Japanese national ever to represent the Blues XV at Oxford, Oku was among the early pioneers for London Japanese, and also played a role in pushing rugby to the front of the agenda in Japan, helping to pave the way to hosting the Rugby World Cup during his time as an aide to former prime minister Yoshiro Mori.

Tragically though, he never got to see his dream fulfilled, as he died in 2003, while working as one of the first diplomats into Iraq after the Gulf War, where he was overseeing Japan’s contribution to the United Nations reconstruction programme. Together with his assistant, Masamori Inoue, Oku was being driven south of Tikrit, deep into Saddam Hussein territory, an area known for insurgent activity, when his car was targeted with machine gun fire. He, together with Inoue and their Iraqi driver, perished. 

“It was mistaken identity,” explains Reg Clark, a long-time friend of Oku, who played alongside him for London Japanese and is the organiser of the Oku Memorial match. “For all we know they thought he was American or it was just a random attack.

“I found out [about his death] the next morning,” explains Reg. “It was a Sunday morning and for some reason a story came up online from the Jerusalem Post saying a Japanese diplomat had been killed in Iraq. It could only be him; he was the only one there.

“Oku arrived in London around 1981 to work at the Embassy and gave the club a huge boost, but his legacy was also in Japanese rugby as a whole. Everyone in world rugby knew him and he has been quite rightly recognised as one of the first that said – to then prime minister Mori – that Japan should go for the World Cup.”

There’s significance all around today; not only is the Oku Memorial Trophy being played out, but the cherry trees that border one side of the pitch are also there in memory of another London Japanese/Japan rugby great, Seiji Hirao, who played for both club and country. Across 35 caps, he appeared in the first three Rugby World Cups, and then coached them in the fourth. As well as turning out for London Japanese in the mid-1980s, Seiji, who passed away in 2016, also played for Richmond, cementing his profound connection with the day.

None of these anniversaries are forgotten by London Japanese, and the tributes paid to both Oku and Seiji are akin to those paid by people who knew them personally, even if some of the current members knew only their legends.

It’s the way of the club: being sociable and welcoming is a common theme in rugby clubs, perhaps, but London Japanese take this to the next level. “We have this motto at London Japanese,” explains Jon Lee, the club president. “Regardless of whether you’re professional, experienced or just beginning, we all stand on the line together and enjoy the game. We do want to win the games, but if you are part of the match-day squad, you will get your time to play rugby. Even if the replacement is less capable, it doesn’t matter, it’s about inclusion. If we win on top of that, great. Lots of people like this ethos, it stops people bickering over who’s better, who’s wearing this shirt, it makes it a nice place to be.”

The evidence stacks up regularly during the first game at Richmond. A player who could still play national league rugby in England is swapped with someone who has possibly not even played half a dozen games. But there’s no quibble, players happily chop and change.

Jon was born in Nigeria to a Japanese mum and English dad, and was schooled in Japan from three to fourteen, before coming to the UK, although it took until he was 35 to find the club. “I saw an ad for the club and just turned up watch, only to be handed boots, shirt, shorts and socks, and told I was playing.”

London Japanese has always been a blend of Japanese, half-Japanese and local British players. “I’d say when I first joined it was about eight per cent Japanese,” says Jon. “And a lot of them were older Japanese business people well into their thirties, but now we’re getting quite a few young students.”

Buoyed by Japan’s success in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and then boosted again by hosting the 2019 edition, London Japanese have had an influx of players, with 54 appearing in their famous red and white jersey in the first complete season since covid. “The World Cup had a big impact,” says Jon. “As Japanese rugby rose, so did our value, and playing for London Japanese meant something.”

Before the 2019 World Cup, the club had just played friendlies, alternating between Saturday training sessions and games. “We’d had the league conversation about five times in the past; when we’ve had ups and downs in numbers, we’d often struggle to get forwards together,” admits Jon. “But in 2019, we decided to enter the league, and although we didn’t get to play in it until last season, we were clear winners – we scored 460 points, but conceded 204.”

Centre Shuya Takahashi, 23, together with scrum-half brother Seiji, 21, represent the first second-generation players in the club’s history, with their dad Saburo having played for the club for a decade. “I was born just outside of Tokyo, moved to Cardiff when I was about one, and my older brother was born here,” explains Shuya. “I played rugby in Cardiff at Llandaff, Louis Rees-Zammit was the year below, but a lot of my earliest rugby memories were watching my dad play for London Japanese, when I was about seven. My brother Seiji and I would be there, mixing with other Japanese kids on the sidelines, and it meant a lot because it was a community more than anything.

“I did go to Japanese school every Saturday in Cardiff, but aside from that I didn’t see many Japanese people. And then when I moved to London when I was older, I saw even less, but playing for them changed all that – I got the opportunity to speak Japanese regularly, to be part of a community group and meet new Japanese people.”

In an ever-evolving squad, Shuya has witnessed constant change, with students now mixing with the business folk. “For those that come from Japan, it means they get to experience the British rugby and pub culture,” he says. “For those that are British they get to experience a bit of Japanese culture – especially the drinking songs, they’re always Japanese.”

Like many who’ve passed through the London Japanese ranks, Shuya has the talent to play at a higher level, but for him the shirt means everything. “This club has so many links, it’s so well connected, that some really famous Japanese rugby legends have played, from the founder Hiroaki who played for and coached Japan to Seiji Hirao, who did the same, and even fairly recently having Takashi Kikutani play for us.

“He was at Saracens,” continues Shuya, “but couldn’t play one weekend for some reason, and so found out about us and came to play for us. He brought a Pacific Island mate with him too. It’s crazy, it’s like having Michael Leitch come and play for us. I’m just so proud to wear the same shirt that people like this have done before me.”

It’s a well-worn cliché that every rugby club is open and friendly, but the famous Japanese hospitality that Jon talked about earlier, makes the club stand out. “One bit of feedback I always get, especially from English players,” begins Shuya, “is that London Japanese is different. Some of them came from more laddish cultures in English rugby and then they joined London Japanese and fell back in love with rugby. It’s genuinely a feelgood club. Everyone is there to have fun.”

Word of the London Japanese social side has spread far into the community, bringing in players from other sports too. “There’s a lot more interest around Japanese rugby,” explains Shuya. “We’re even having people coming from Japan who’ve never played rugby before; we had a basketball player come to a session recently, he loved it, and now plays for us.”

Bringing together Japanese communities across London, where there’s thought to be around 37,000 Japanese in the Greater London area, is also key to the club’s future. “There’s a few London Japanese football clubs, some who play quite competitively,” says Shuya, “and we’ve done joint socials with the London Japanese Football Club, we played a rugby club versus football club match recently.

“We want to connect all of the Japanese community in London,” he continues. “We’re based close to the Japanese school in Acton, so we’re in the centre of the Japanese community really and we want the rugby club to be very much at the heart of it all.”

The club, says Shuya, have been hit by Brexit with some Japanese companies shutting up shop in the UK, and they also still lose players due to the natural cycle of business. “When you have people with a salary man lifestyle, they go where they’re told,” says Shuya, “so they get posted in the UK for two or three years and then get told to go back to Japan, which is what happened to our last two captains, so it can be hard to keep a good side together with quite a high turnover.

“But we’ve got a good core now of Japanese, half-Japanese, British-born Japanese, that keeps it together, as well as local players.”

In addition to riding high in the merit table – they’re top of the Middlesex Merit Table 3 looking for a second title in a row when we meet the side in Richmond – they also secure a rare win over the Kew Occasionals. “We’ve played this for so many years, and we always lose,” says Shuya, “but this time we finally won and well too, 50-12, so we smashed it, and I think that shows how far we’ve come. It was our 40th anniversary in 2019, and we decided to enter the leagues then, and now we’ve got some class players, we’re younger and fitter, and going from strength to strength.

“Before we joined the league, our biggest concern was having a forward pack to compete in the scrum, but with all the people who have joined, our pack is probably our strength, it’s very physical. And it’s Japanese players too, some of our smallest guys hit harder than anyone on the pitch.”

Their current captain Yu Araki is key for them, even though he arrived barely speaking English. “He’s now getting so much better at English and has really fallen in love with London Japanese,” says Shuya, “and he’s helped the social side too: most of our current drinking songs come from him.”

Even though they’re in the league system, they don’t train during the week, and even when they don’t have a fixture on Saturdays, training only consists of touch rugby, helping to make it as accessible to newcomers as possible. “Being social is still the core of the club,” says Shuya, “it’s why our slogan is ‘tasty beers’: it’s about having fun first.

“I just think,” he adds, “it’s a privilege to play for a club with such a rich history and heritage, to put the same shirt on that some amazing names have, and I guess it’s also about representing Japan in a small way, in London, I’m really proud of that too.”

Story by Alex Mead

Pictures by Tim Anger

This extract was taken from issue 20 of Rugby.
To order the print journal, click here.