Asian Football Confederation (AFC) set 15 May as “AFC Grassroots Football Day” in 2013. This is a memorable day for Japan since J. League started in 1993 and the JFA Declaration on Grassroots Football was announced. AFC, with its member associations including JFA, holds events to celebrate the AFC Grassroots Football Day to promote football amongst people in many Asian countries. In Japan, there were various football festivals all over Japan. 

In Goto, Nagasaki prefecture, “JFA Kids Soccer Festival Nagasaki in Goto” was held on 16 May. At first, they were supposed to hold the festival at an outdoor athletic stadium but due to the bad weather, it took place in a public indoor gymnasium. There are several small islands in Goto, and more than 140 U-10 kids including girls and first-time players from other islands such as Shinkamigoto, joined in the festival. The event was held with “FIFA Grassroots Festival” form and the players could efficiently experience “Small Sided Games” and “Skill Station” which FIFA recommends. For this event, Nagasaki Football Association worked closely with Goto Football Association and other high-school volunteers. On this occasion, JFA General Secretary Hara Hiromi visited the venue to enjoy the festival together with the participants. 

There are about 600 remote islands in Nagasaki prefecture and there are about 130,000 people across 51 major islands of the previously mentioned 600. On each of these islands, there are local branch football associations that belong to Nagasaki Football Association. Goto Football Association is one of these branch organisations and it is in charge of local football activities on the Goto islands. On the remote islands, there are qualifying rounds of the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament and other official matches for each age category. However, there are such limited transportation to connect between remote islands, compared to the other major transportation connections with Kyusyu Island, hence holding official matches on remote islands is not easy. At this festival, Nagasaki Football Association sponsored to hire a ship to encourage many kids even from remote islands such as Kamigoto to join in this football event. 

There were other football festivals celebrating AFC Grassroots Football Day in Saga and Osaka on 17 May. 
Fourty-seven Japanese local football associations plan to have 600 local football festivals which are expected to welcome 100,000 players for this year until March of 2016. JFA has supported these local events organised by local football associations since 2003, and they will keep supporting them in the future.

Comments

HARA Hiromi, JFA General Secretary
Hello everyone, have you enjoyed the event today?
I used to be a national squad player and scored a lot. I was good at heading and it was really nice when I could score, even though I broke my nose many times. It was a bit of a shame that I couldn’t show you my heading, but it was very good to play with you today. The Japan Football Association had “The JFA Declaration on Grassroots Football” one year ago. We want to work for everybody in this country to enjoy football anywhere and anytime; it doesn’t matter if it’s child or adult, futsal or beach soccer and it also doesn’t matter if they have any disability or not.
In the future, Japan will surely be a star county in FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games. It will be you who will make Japan a rich country where people enjoy many sports in the future. Please enjoy various sports activities including football with your parents, and please talk with your parents about many things. Please enjoy football and many other sports in the future. (Speech from the Closing Ceremony)

Participants from Goto City, Nagasaki - KASE Midori (Elementary School 2nd Grade) , mother Aoi
We got to know about this festival through my school and a website. My dad plays futsal and he came with us today to cheer us on. I usually go to cheer for my dad in his futsal matches. Since I didn’t have much experience before and I wanted to try football, so it was very good to join in this event today. At home, I sometimes play with the ball with my parents. Today I enjoyed football with other participants I met for the first time. It was not easy to control the ball, but I enjoyed it a lot.