Rugby

Generally speaking, rugby is a sport where fifteen players on each team chase an elliptical-shaped ball, scoring 'tries' and 'drop goals' for points. Originating in England in 1823, Rugby was officially established in Japan in 1899. It was initially introduced to the country by English professors at Keio University who taught the sport to their students. Rugby gained popularity as a competitive sport between schools such as Keio, Waseda, Doshisha, and Meiji University. In the years following World War II, its popularity had grown enough to foster adult leagues in the sport. In the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship, Shin Nittetsu Kamaishi and Kobe Seiko won the championship seven years in a row, from 1978 and 1987 respectively. Japan has played in the World Cup from the debut of the competition in 1987. Japan has shown increasingly active efforts, with multiple wins, a total of three, during the 2015 World Cup, and then their advancement to the final eight in the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the first to be held in Japan.

The term ‘No Side’, used in Rugby to mean the end of a game, refers to the ideal of both teams ending the match with no ill-will and remaining friends. It’s a term which embodies the spirit of good sportsmanship and, in Japan, is used not only in Rugby but in a wide range of situations. Conversely, the term has become increasingly uncommon in the West, with ‘Full Time’ now being the more popular term to signal the end of a game.