Abstract
This paper reveals the features and trends of “football migrants” in the J. League compared with those in European leagues. Football migrants are professional footballers who migrate to play football. While the importance of their role has been recognized since the foundation of the J. League in 1993, previous studies have not investigated them in detail. Therefore, this paper explores the features of football migration in the J. League by comparing them to the findings of studies on European leagues.
We collected data from players’ lists, which are published before the beginning of each season, and analyzed whether (1) the patterns of footballers’ migration are the same as those in European leagues, in terms of the high ratio of South American, former Yugoslav, and African footballers, and (2) the characteristics of football migrants have changed since the foundation of the J. League.
The analysis reveals that the ratio of Brazilians, former Yugoslav, and Korean footballers is high, while that of African footballers is low. In addition, the variety of countries/areas of origin of football migrants is less than that at the foundation of the J. League. Moreover, the average age of football migrants is decreasing. Thus, while the J. League plays an important role in receiving football migrants, there are uninvestigated features of football migration. This paper suggests that further investigation is needed into football migration not only in Europe, but also in marginal areas such as Japan.
