The JFA Mid-Term Plan for 2023-2026Japan Football Hall of Fame
JFA Hall of Fame Inductee
AYABE Michie
Special Selection: 18th Japan Football Hall of Fame in 2022
- Born in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan on 4 November 1948
Starting out as an elementary school teacher coaching junior soccer in Shimizu City (now Shizuoka City), she also served as coach of Shimizu FC and coached players such as HASEGAWA Kenta, OENOKI Katsumi, and HORIIKE Takumi who subsequently became Japanese international footballers. In 1977, she guided her team to joint first place (with Yono-Shimo-Ochiai SSS) in the first National Junior Football Championship.
She was a pioneering female football coach, who helped to develop many of Japan’s leading female footballers.
As well as coaching junior footballers, she also promoted the formation of Shimizu’s first ever fathers’ teams and mothers’ teams, launched a training organization for children and parents, and strove to popularize football. For many years, she served as director and deputy chairwoman of the Shimizu Football Association, and as a director of the Shizuoka Football Association.
As a director and special appointee of the Japan Football Association, AYABE held responsibility for under-12 football and for women’s football. In this capacity, she served as chairwoman of the Under-12 Championships and as deputy chairwoman of the Women’s Committee (as well as fulfilling other roles too). She was also involved in the preparations for girls’ championships in multiple age categories, and in the introduction of an 8-a-side national junior football championship. AYABE thus contributed greatly to the popularization and development of football in Japan.
