Asahi Ueda is a name that is etched into the folklore of Japanese football history. Known as the leader of the Nippon Ultras, Ueda is someone who wears many hats. A director, producer, business man and recording artiste – he has accomplished a lot in his career. For this article, we dive into the Ultras chapter of his life and answer a very important question – how did it all start?
“I started to watch football about 40 years ago,” explains the 49-year-old Ueda. “At the time, many Japanese people were into baseball but it was the Captain Tsubasa anime that really got more Japanese people hooked onto football.”
That being said, only a few people turned up at stadiums to catch live games. One of the first games that Ueda caught was in fact a 1985 fixture between Japan and Singapore, a game he distinctly remembers with Singapore’s favourite footballing son Fandi Ahmad featuring for the Lions.
“Japan might have won the game 5-0 but the TV commentators were describing how Fandi was playing in Holland and was a star for the future,” shares Asahi. “So, Fandi’s name has stuck in my mind since then.”
The 1985 qualifiers were when Ueda started to religiously follow the Japanese national team. As he aptly puts it, before this, reaching the World Cup was seen as more of a dream for Japan but it was never really considered to be an achievable target. That changed in 1985 when Japan made it all the way to the final round of qualification before taking on their eternal rivals, Korea in the final round.
Asahi Ueda leading the Ultra-Nippon when Japan played Brazil in an international friendly in Singapore in 2014
“Every time the national team played, less than 10,000 people would turn up to catch the games,” mentions Ueda. “But, when we take on Korea, the match attendance is over 40,000 people.”
Unfortunately, Japan would succumb to a 2-1 loss on aggregate to their bitter foes. Nevertheless, the journey to the final round of qualification instilled the belief that qualification to the World Cup was within their reach.
These initial years were also when Ueda began to establish himself as a distinct supporter. While most fans in the Stadium would be clapping loudly as a signal of support for the Japan national team, Ueda would be shouting and cheering at the top of his lungs. After national team fixtures, he would often find the national team players and meet them. He became a familiar figure for many Japanese national team stalwarts since the 1980s and has remained a cult hero ever since.
Yet, it wasn’t until he moved to England in 1989 to further his education that he ventured into the world of Football Ultras.
“It’s funny because I was supposed to go to England to learn English but I barely learned any there because I was in a Japanese school,” he jokes. “But my time in England opened my eyes. I began to watch football in England, Spain, Italy, and other parts of Europe. I used to get a Eurail Pass ticket to travel around easily via train. I didn’t have a lot of money but I really wanted to catch these fixtures. So, I used to sleep over at my friends’ houses. But because I was able to watch these big European games, I was able to study supporter’s cultures in different parts.”
Asahi Ueda, an avid Leeds United supporter (Photos courtesy of Asahi Ueda)
For the next two and a half years, Ueda was based in Milton Keynes, north-west London and in the process became a lifelong Leeds United fan who used his free time to travel the continent. That continued after he graduated from boarding school when he moved to Germany where he was offered a place at a University in Berlin. However, Ueda felt like he didn’t want to spend any more time in school and returned to Japan after a year.
Remarkably though, he managed to visit over 100 stadiums all across the world while he was living in Europe. Many different Ultra groups had an influence on Ueda’s own understanding but the Ultras of Boca Juniors had the biggest impact on him. When he visited La Bombonera 20 years ago, he felt a sense of excitement he had never experienced before.
The experiences then are not the same today and Ueda believes that many iconic stadiums are now somewhat like monuments for sightseeing pleasure. Yet, he believes that there are places in the world where you can experience the intense passion for the beautiful game. One such country is right around the corner of our little red dot.
“I have never been to Indonesia but I really want to,” explains Ueda. “What I see there, is what I saw in South America, Greece, and Turkey 20 to 30 years ago. I remember watching Fenerbahçe taking on Galatasaray and Olympiacos taking on Panathinaikos and remembering how crazy it was with flares being thrown onto the pitch. When I look at Indonesian football today, it reminds me a lot of the passion in those fixtures.”
Ueda returned to Japan sometime in 1992, a year of many firsts in Japanese football. The Japanese national team had previously worn Red and White for its team colours but the higher authorities changed the team uniform to blue. That decision may have had some rub-on effect because Japan would go on to claim two titles. Japan clinched its first continental title when talismanic forward Takuya Takagi scored the winner against Saudi Arabia in the AFC Asian Cup Final. Before that, Japan had also won the Dynasty Cup – contested by the top four teams of East Asia. The J.League was also formed in 1992, marking the birth of the professional era of Japanese football.
Asashi Ueda and his adventure with Ultra-Nippon (Photos courtesy of Asahi Ueda)
Most importantly, it was the year when Ultra Nippon officially started. The Ultras group had existed long before unofficially but there was no formal name. Instead, it was a group of passionate fans coming together to support without anyone really leading the masses. The name came about when the group decided to record a CD for fan chants and songs.
They were required to fill in an artist’s name to the Sony recording company but were cracking their heads hard for one as Ueda describes:
“We initially wanted the name ‘Ultras,’ but that name was taken up by another Japanese music group. We then thought about ‘Ultras Japan’ but we didn’t like that either but we quite liked ‘Ultras Nippon’. The thing is, I don’t think the name is important but we needed one for the CD.”
And so, started a new era in Japanese football with Asahi leading the troops from the stands. Armed with a loudhailer in front of a contingent of passionate fans, Asahi would lead the throngs of supporters into chants and songs to spur their team on, just like leaders of various Ultras factions across Europe.
However, it wasn’t just the practices of the European Ultras that Ueda adopted but the mindset as well. This is clearly apparent in his notion of territoriality.
“When I was a Child, I supported Yomiuri FC, which was a Tokyo team,” describes Ueda. But then, once the J. League started, the team changed its name to Verdy Kawasaki and I was very upset by this because my town is Tokyo. That’s when I stopped supporting the team and apologized to players like [Ruy] Ramos and [King] Kazu that I won’t be supporting the club anymore. How can I support a club with Kawasaki in its name?”
J.League’s FC Tokyo fans and team in action
Instead, Ueda threw his weight behind another Tokyo outfit, Tokyo Gas FC (who are now FC Tokyo). When Ueda started to attend their matches, many others joined too. In fact, it became overwhelming for the club – who were the football team of the Tokyo Gas entity, the main distributor of many big cities in Japan. Club officials initially did not know what to do with this increased support because they had no intentions of joining the J.League. They even told supporters not to come down to the games. But as the number of supporters grew, club management had a change in heart and soon they joined the league.
While the J.League was beginning to build steam, so was the national team.
In 1993, Japan took on Iraq as part of the 1994 World Cup qualifiers in Doha, Qatar. It was a must-win encounter for both sides but a 91st-minute equaliser by Iraqi forward Jaffar Omran meant that both teams missed out on qualification and instead, South Korea booked their ticket to America. A tragic end yet again.
“We were literally seconds away from reaching the World Cup for the first time in our history but the Iraqi equaliser truly ended our dream that year,” Ueda recalls in agony.
But it wasn’t long before Japan transformed their once lofty ambitions into reality. 4 years later in 1997, they finally booked their golden ticket. In a play-off against fellow Asian titans Iran, Japan managed to edge past their adversary in extra time via a golden goal from Masayuki Okano. Ueda was in the stadium with thousands of Japanese fans in attendance as they celebrated a long-awaited dream turning into reality.
However, the 1998 World Cup milestone also sparked inadvertently a declining interest in Japanese football overall? How so? Stay tuned to find out more on Soccerkakis – Part II!
Asahi Ueda’s interview on Asian Football Show back in 1998.
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