Football in Japan

There's a lot of college and high school football. It's become quite popular in recent years. In fact, Japanese college teams and all-stars regularly play host to American college teams. There are more than two hundred college and high school football teams in Japan.

Japanese are interested in American football. Televised re-runs of American professional football games have good audiences in Japan. And many Japanese teams use videotapes of American pro games as part of their training.

In the past, Japanese considered themselves too small to play pro football, But recent generations have been growing taller. Now Japanese men are big and heavy enough to be good players, and quite good enough for professional leagues. The Japan Professional Football League , or J. League is the top professional association football  league in Japan.