Ultra Nippon: How Japan Reinvented Football

As co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup, football in Japan has never been so much under scrutiny. In ULTRA NIPPON Jonathan Birchall examines the world of Japanese 'socca' which has attracted some of the biggest stars in the world. Focusing on Shimizu S-Pulse, coached by Tottenham legend Steve Perryman, he looks how Japanese football is different from that of other countries (where else would the bins be divided between burnable and non-burnable rubbish?) and how it is different from other sports in Japan. He has written a revealing and hugely entertaining portrait not just of a sport in new surroundings, but of an old country coming to terms with change.