Rugby union in Japan

Rugby union in Japan
Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Tokyo Japan vs. Wales, June 2013
Country	Japan
Governing body	Japan Rugby Football Union
National team	Japan
Nickname(s)	Cherry Blossoms, Brave Blossoms
First played	1866, Yokohama
Registered players	122,598 (total) 53,416 (adult) 41,722 (teenage) 27,460 (pre-teenage)
Clubs	3,620
Club competitions
Super Rugby Top League Lixil Cup All-Japan Rugby Football Championship All-Japan University Rugby Championship
International competitions
Asian Rugby Championship Asian Sevens Series Asian Games Sevens  World Rugby competitions Rugby World Cup Rugby World Cup Sevens Sevens World Series Women's Rugby World Cup World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
Audience records
Single match	66,999 Waseda Univ. vs Meiji Univ. (5 Dec 1952, National Stadium (Tokyo))

Rugby union in Japan is a moderately popular sport. Japan has the fourth largest population of rugby union players in the world and the sport has been played there for over a century. There are 125,000 Japanese rugby players, 3,631 official rugby clubs, and the Japan national team is ranked 10th in the world.

Before the arrival of rugby, Japan was home to a game known as kemari (Japanese: 蹴鞠), which in some ways was a parallel development to association football, and to a lesser extent rugby football. It is said that kemari was introduced to Japan from China in about 600, during the Asuka period, and was based upon the Chinese sport of cuju. The object of Kemari is to keep one ball in the air, with all players cooperating to do so. The ball, known as a mari, is made of deerskin with the hair facing inside and the hide on the outside. Kemari has been revived in modern times, and the players still wear the traditional costumes for the game.

Like many Western customs, rugby football first reached Japan when gunboat diplomacy deployed by the United States and European powers ended the country's period of self-imposed isolation in 1854.

The first recorded instance of a team being established and rugby being played in Japan was in 1866 with the founding of the Yokohama Foot Ball Club. The rules committee of the club consisted of notable Rugby School, Radley and Winchester College alumni including Capt. Charles Rochefort and Capt. Robert Blount of the 20th (The East Devonshire) Regiment of Foot and Royal Navy Lieutenant Lord Walter Kerr. Other Rugby School alumni soon followed including George Hamilton who became captain of the Yokohama team. Games, mainly between service personnel, were played on the Garrison Parade Ground in Yamate, Yokohama.