A team of scientists has found that women’s football was common across Japan between the Meiji restoration and the start of the Second World War. In the process, they also uncovered the oldest known photograph of women playing football in Japan, from 1916.
The history of men’s football in Japan is well documented. In particular, the introduction of association football into Japan in the late 19th and 20th centuries has been extensively investigated. The same degree of attention had not been paid to women’s football.
A team of researchers from six institutions, including Associate Professor Yoshihiro Sakita of Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Education, has reported the first study into the history of women’s football in Japan. [Read more…] about Women’s football in Japan had a rich history before WWII