Attention is focused on Japan's "striker" problem at the Soccer World Cup

The once-every-four-years festival that excites soccer fans around the world is about to begin. The Men's World Cup will begin on June 11th (early morning on the 12th Japan time) in North and Central America, and the Japanese national team, who have participated in eight consecutive tournaments, will aim to advance to the top eight for the first time and win the championship. Most of the members belong to European clubs, and this tournament is being hailed as the ``strongest ever'', and there are high hopes that it will help overcome long-standing issues in Japanese soccer.

Among the 11 players on the pitch, the role of a full-fledged forward (FW) called a ``striker'' is a special one that is directly linked to victory or defeat. However, the lack of world-class strikers has been a problem in Japanese soccer for many years.

``I think it's difficult for Japanese society to develop natural strikers.'' Shinji Kagawa (37) of J1 club Cerezo Osaka took the microphone at a talk event held in Osaka in June 2025. Kagawa player is 1 from 10 years...