Japan Rugby Football Union
| 日本ラグビーフットボール協会 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sport | Rugby union |
| Founded | 1926 |
| WR affiliation | 1987 |
| Asia Rugby affiliation | 1968 |
| President | Yoshirō Mori |
| Men's coach | Jamie Joseph |
| Website | www.jrfu.org |
The Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU; Japanese: 日本ラグビーフットボール協会, Nihon Ragubi- Futtobo-ru Kyo-kai) is the governing body for rugby union in Japan. It was formed November 30, 1926 and is currently one of only two federations from outside the Six Nations and The Rugby Championship with a seat on the executive council of World Rugby, the sport's international governing body (the other is Rugby Canada). Former Japanese prime minister Yoshirō Mori is the JRFU's current president.
Rugby union was first introduced to Japanese students at Keio University in Japan by Professor Edward Bramwell Clarke (who was born in Yokohama) and Tanaka Ginnosuke, both graduates of Cambridge University, in 1899. It had been played at the treaty ports (Kobe and Yokohama especially) before that, between teams of long-term foreign residents and visiting ships' crews, garrisons etc.
With Japan's advantages of a superb infrastructure (stadiums, accommodation and transportation) and the experience of co-staging the Football (soccer) World Cup 2002 with Korea, the JRFU bid to host the Rugby World Cup in 2011.
The bid's catchphrase or slogan was "Making Rugby a Truly Global Sport". So far the Rugby World Cup has never been held outside the traditional rugby strongholds of the Northern and Southern hemisphere (the countries involved in the Six Nations and Tri-Nations tournaments). In that sense, the slogan was a justified attempt to grow the game worldwide, and make it a global sport.
...
Wikipedia