JFA Hall of Fame Inductee

Kyaw DIN

Inductees Recommended by the Committee (Special Selection)

Born in Burma in June 1900

Burmese student (at Tokyo Technical Higher School - now Tokyo Institute of Technology) whose football coaching and teaching of football philosophies caused revolutionary technical advances in Japanese football throughout the Taisho and early Showa eras. Begins coaching at the Tokyo Normal Higher School-Affiliated Junior High School in around 1920, before moving to Waseda High School at the request of Shigeyoshi Suzuki and achieving two successive victories in the All-Japan High School Football Tournament (old Inter-High), which began in 1923. These successes bring attention to Kyaw Din's strong coaching skills, leading him to tour the country and give coaching at a number of schools. Teaches skills and philosophies from basic kicking and passing to the tactical idea of attacking through short passing, resulting in improved technique throughout Japanese football as a whole, and laying the foundations for progress on the international stage.

Writes the coaching textbook "How to Play Association Football". Japanese-language version published in August 1923 following the cooperation of Kyaw Din's pupils. This textbook was the first of its kind in Japan, going into the specifics and the theory of technique and tactics, and using many photographs and pictures.

The teams receiving his coaching achieved results based on his short passing tactics, and members of these teams would go on to bring further progress to Japanese football as players and coaches. A notable example was the Japan national team competing in the 1930 Far Eastern Championship Games, with Suzuki as manager and built around Shigemaru Takenokoshi and other University of Tokyo players, which achieved Japan's first East Asian title. Here, Japan established its own style of football, and built the foundations for its tactical traditions. These advances would go on to influence Japan's exploits in the Berlin Olympics six years later.
Returns to Myanmar in 1924. Date of death uncertain.

• 
  NOZU Yuzuru
• SUZUKI Shigeyoshi