From Japan straight out to the world: the web site for news and information

September 12 will mark the beginning of the Women Empowerment League (WE League), Japan’s first professional women’s soccer league. The WE League has a philosophy of contributing through women’s soccer and sports to the creation and development of a society filled with diverse dreams and lifestyles where everyone can shine. Requirements for joining the league include having at least 50% women executives in the management company and having at least one decision maker who is a woman. The goals for founding this league are to increase the popularity of women’s sports in Japan, and to make the women’s national team Nadeshiko Japan into the number one team in the world for the first time since winning the World Cup in 2011. Will the establishment of the WE League provide a boost to the status of women in Japan, which has been noted as lagging behind? With Japan and the world in a somber mood due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what kind of message can be sent?

 

The FPCJ invited Ms. Kikuko Okajima, inaugural chair of the WE League, to discuss the significance of founding the league and her vision for it, one week before the opening match of Nadeshiko Japan at the Tokyo Olympics and two months before the opening match of the new league.

The briefing had a total of 14 participants including journalists from  Denmark, France, Germany, Peru, Russia, and the US.