It’s the transfer of the year in Japanese football. Not the most expensive, but the most publicized. On January 11, at 11:11 a.m. in reference to his legendary number 11, Kazuyoshi Miura, alias “King Kazu”, formalized his departure from Yokohama FC, a second division club, for that of Suzuka Point Getters, which plays in the fourth division.
The “Japanese Brazilian”
The case would be trivial if it did not concern the dean of world pro football, who will celebrate his 55th birthday in February. Leaving for Brazil at the age of 15 to become a professional, the native of Shizuoka, in central Japan, started his career at the Santos club in 1986, when Michel Platini walked the lawns of Calcio and the World Cup was played at the Mexico. Returning to Japan in 1990, five years later he became the first Japanese player to play in Italy. His career takes him to Croatia and Australia, all punctuated by 89 selections for the Samurai Blue, the national team.
Adored in the Archipelago, King Kazu left Yokohama FC to find playing time, reduced to a minute in 2021, the time to set a new longevity record by becoming the oldest professional player in practice at world level. .
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Like his country
“Football is the only thing I want to do. My only interest is to play,” says the stainless striker, while acknowledging that “things will be difficult wherever I go.” At Suzuka, the risk remains limited. The club’s general manager is none other than his older brother, also a former pro, Yasutoshi.
The arrival of the star is also a nice publicity stunt for the formation of Suzuka (in the south of the main island of Honshu), because the player remains popular. Since 2017, he has been the face of Dandy House, a chain of beauty salons for men. When Yokohama FC posted photos of the player in a suit and tie on its Twitter account in December, fans were amazed: “too hot”, “I want to become like him”.
The dashing fifty-something with exceptional longevity is in the image of his country: aging, he gives an illusion of dynamism that poorly masks stagnation, even decline. The archipelago is experiencing accelerated aging with a population that has shrunk by 2 million people between 2011 and 2021, settling last year at 125.7 million. The share of the over 65s in the world’s third-largest economy represents 30% of the population and will exceed 38% in 2060, according to the population institute IPSS, while the Japanese Center for Economic Research (JCER) sees the level of life per capita of Japan exceeded by 2027 by those of South Korea and Taiwan.
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