One of the things l liked best about the World Cups is the fact that it gives the “insignificant” countries a chance to shine. Unlike the Olympic Games, the World Cup never because a venue for Superpower Rivalry (USA vs USSR and now it’s USA vs China). The most powerful nations in soccer are the Europeans and South Americans, who while prosperous are not “superpowers” in the sense that we understand the term.
What is true of soccer is even more true of rugby union, where the only power so to speak is New Zealand, a country that is geographically in a small corner of the globe and its main export is its fantastic landscape as seen in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Yet, somehow, when it comes to the sport of rugby, New Zealand has consistently produced a world dominating team. The New Zealand “All Blacks” are the most successful team in the history of any sport with a 75 percent or greater winning record against any team they’ve played (there is the 25 percent chance the Australians, South Africans, English and French have a miraculous day and the All Blacks have a desire to lose).
So, when we look at Rugby World Cup 2019, everyone expects New Zealand’s All Blacks to storm their way to a record fourth World Cup. Baring a freak case of divine intervention, the interest in Rugby World Cup 2019 will be on who is the runner-up. In this case, we’d be looking at other rugby powers of Australia, South Africa, England and France, though admittedly Wales and Ireland could produce some interesting rugby.
While the results of Rugby World Cup 2019 are predictable, there’s one team that’s caused a stir – the host nation, Japan, a country which has never been on anyone’s map as far as world rugby was concerned. That was until Rugby World Cup 2015, when they upset the Springboks (as the South African National Team is known), one of the three great powers of world rugby (the other’s being Australia and New Zealand). At the time of writing, the Japanese are resting the top of their table in Rugby World Cup 2019, having stunned the likes of Ireland, Samoa and Russia.
If you study Japan’s history in World Rugby, they’ve come a very long way. I remember a time that whenever Japan played a rugby match against anyone, they’d expect to get the stuffing knocked out of them. Suddenly, they are taking on the best in the world and they are more than holding their own. The sudden rise of Japanese rugby is something to be celebrated and in an increasingly polarized and nationalistic world, the success of Japanese rugby offers many lessons, as was outlined in the Nikkei Asian Review, which can be found at:
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Rugby-World-Cup/Diversity-strengthens-Japan-on-and-off-the-rugby-pitch
The underlying message about the recent success and improvements to Japanese rugby lies in one simple message – it’s good to be open to the outside world. Japanese rugby has grown by leaps and bounds because its allowed foreigners to play for the nation and to become part of Japans larger society.
What makes this case interesting, is the fact that Japan has traditionally been a very insular society and hierarchical. It took Commodore Perry’s gun boats to bring Japan into the modern world and it took the American occupation under General Douglas McArthur for Japan to develop a modern political system. However, despite these events, Japan has always kept itself ethnically homogeneous and culturally pure. We are talking about a country that refused to import rice because there was a policy that grown-in Japan rice was the only rice suitable for Japanese tummies.
Japan’s periods of modernization’s have been spectacular. The Japanese have a great sense of national pride and after they’ve been forced to open by a modern power, they’ve always managed to group together and grow as a nation. Nobody doubts that Japan is a world-beater in many areas. However, the same sense of nationalism has been an Achilles heel in its refusal to be more open to the wider world. Japan’s economy remains in the doldrums from the crash of the economic bubble in the 1990s
Japan’s rugby team was a microcosm of this. For many years, it remained close to inviting foreign players into its national team, which created a major disadvantage. Rugby, unlike soccer, requires size. The “pure” Japanese are not built for situations where bulk is required, even though, as former England Rugby Captain, Bill Beaumont said, “they played very innovative rugby to overcome the size gap.”
So, on an “ethnic” demographic level, bringing in Westerners and South Sea Islanders helped give the Japanese national team the “bulk” it previously lacked (note, the laws of Rugby Union mean that you can’t just hire people to play for you – they have to live in the country for a number of years and so on).
What is true of soccer is even more true of rugby union, where the only power so to speak is New Zealand, a country that is geographically in a small corner of the globe and its main export is its fantastic landscape as seen in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Yet, somehow, when it comes to the sport of rugby, New Zealand has consistently produced a world dominating team. The New Zealand “All Blacks” are the most successful team in the history of any sport with a 75 percent or greater winning record against any team they’ve played (there is the 25 percent chance the Australians, South Africans, English and French have a miraculous day and the All Blacks have a desire to lose).
So, when we look at Rugby World Cup 2019, everyone expects New Zealand’s All Blacks to storm their way to a record fourth World Cup. Baring a freak case of divine intervention, the interest in Rugby World Cup 2019 will be on who is the runner-up. In this case, we’d be looking at other rugby powers of Australia, South Africa, England and France, though admittedly Wales and Ireland could produce some interesting rugby.
While the results of Rugby World Cup 2019 are predictable, there’s one team that’s caused a stir – the host nation, Japan, a country which has never been on anyone’s map as far as world rugby was concerned. That was until Rugby World Cup 2015, when they upset the Springboks (as the South African National Team is known), one of the three great powers of world rugby (the other’s being Australia and New Zealand). At the time of writing, the Japanese are resting the top of their table in Rugby World Cup 2019, having stunned the likes of Ireland, Samoa and Russia.
If you study Japan’s history in World Rugby, they’ve come a very long way. I remember a time that whenever Japan played a rugby match against anyone, they’d expect to get the stuffing knocked out of them. Suddenly, they are taking on the best in the world and they are more than holding their own. The sudden rise of Japanese rugby is something to be celebrated and in an increasingly polarized and nationalistic world, the success of Japanese rugby offers many lessons, as was outlined in the Nikkei Asian Review, which can be found at:
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Rugby-World-Cup/Diversity-strengthens-Japan-on-and-off-the-rugby-pitch
The underlying message about the recent success and improvements to Japanese rugby lies in one simple message – it’s good to be open to the outside world. Japanese rugby has grown by leaps and bounds because its allowed foreigners to play for the nation and to become part of Japans larger society.
What makes this case interesting, is the fact that Japan has traditionally been a very insular society and hierarchical. It took Commodore Perry’s gun boats to bring Japan into the modern world and it took the American occupation under General Douglas McArthur for Japan to develop a modern political system. However, despite these events, Japan has always kept itself ethnically homogeneous and culturally pure. We are talking about a country that refused to import rice because there was a policy that grown-in Japan rice was the only rice suitable for Japanese tummies.
Japan’s periods of modernization’s have been spectacular. The Japanese have a great sense of national pride and after they’ve been forced to open by a modern power, they’ve always managed to group together and grow as a nation. Nobody doubts that Japan is a world-beater in many areas. However, the same sense of nationalism has been an Achilles heel in its refusal to be more open to the wider world. Japan’s economy remains in the doldrums from the crash of the economic bubble in the 1990s
Japan’s rugby team was a microcosm of this. For many years, it remained close to inviting foreign players into its national team, which created a major disadvantage. Rugby, unlike soccer, requires size. The “pure” Japanese are not built for situations where bulk is required, even though, as former England Rugby Captain, Bill Beaumont said, “they played very innovative rugby to overcome the size gap.”
So, on an “ethnic” demographic level, bringing in Westerners and South Sea Islanders helped give the Japanese national team the “bulk” it previously lacked (note, the laws of Rugby Union mean that you can’t just hire people to play for you – they have to live in the country for a number of years and so on).
However, on a more important level, the new arrivals have brought in new ways of working and thinking. They’ve managed to get the Japanese system to be more flexible and even more creative. This is precisely the reason why cultures need to be open to outside influences, while maintaining their very core. Cultures that are open to outside influences must evolve and grow. Cultures that don’t are spared the need to compete and as a result, they stagnate.
Let’s look at the world’s superpower – the USA. If you look at the USA from an economic lens, you’ll notice that the most dynamic and innovative parts are in the West and East Coast. You have Hollywood, Silicon Valley and New York City, thinking of how the world should be, selling of the vision of how the world should be, the financing and production or science of how to create the world’s new reality. These are the parts of America that make it the world power that it is. These are the parts of America that happen to be open to migration and outside influences. Except for Chicago, the bits in the middle don’t produce world-beating innovations. These happen to be the parts with the least number of new migrants.
This isn’t just true in America. It’s also true of the rising power of China, where the real economic creation is in the Eastern Seaboard (places where Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai are located). These happen to be the areas with the most influences from the outside world.
While I don’t dispute the importance of the need to look after the forgotten people or the people who lose from globalization, outside influences are necessary for cultures to be competitive and to be able to “take-care” of their people.
I often look at India as the test case for why “ethno-centric nationalism” doesn’t work. Prior to the opening of India in the 1990s, India’s main contribution to the world was “gurus” who helped a few frustrated Westerners lose their pennies and increased the sales for Rolls Royce. While modern India is by no means perfect, it has lifted people out of poverty, created world class companies (Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro etc.) and Indians are a serious force on the world stage (think Indra Nooyi of Pepsico, Ajay Bangha of Mastercard etc.)
Now, we have another shinning example of the Japanese National Rugby Team, which went from not being able to get a drop goal past the Western powers on the pitch to beating world powers on the pitch. As sport is often the extension of a wider society, I’ll just say ask the world’s Jingoist who they’d argue against the Japanese Rugby teams results.
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