14 Apr 2005(Thu)

TOKYO (April 13): Listening to the radio this morning, it seems that the North Korea-Japan match might not go ahead after all at Pyongyang on June 8.

This makes sense to me, as I feel it would be very dangerous for Japanese fans to travel to the game. The players also.

Especially if Japan win the game, there could be some big problems for security officials, and you wonder how much effort they would make to stop any trouble.

This came to mind watching the TV news the other day, when some 10,000 Chinese demonstrated in Beijing against Japan over a number of issues.

The police just watched as the Chinese lined up to throw rocks or bottles at the Japanese Embassy.

At one point I thought the police might start handing out cuddly toys for a direct hit at an Embassy window, like at the fairground.

Apparently, they didn't try to stop them because they didn't want the demonstrators' anger turned on their own government. Interesting.

The same could happen in Pyongyang, so the possibility of moving the match makes sense.

To where?

Well, Seoul would be too political, and so now, sadly, would Hong Kong, although I think the latter would be a perfect location.

Many Japanese live there, many would travel down for the game, the magnificent Hong Kong Stadium seats 40,000, and the former British colony is football crazy.

I lived there for eight years, and still visit regularly, and often I see Chinese youngsters wearing replica shirts of Hidetoshi Nakata, Junichi Inamoto and others, including Naoki Matsuda.

The anti-Japan feeling would surely be burning in Hong Kong as well, as it is aligned much closer to the Motherland now since the 1997 handover.

If the North Korea-Japan match is to be played in a neutral venue, Singapore would make sense, or perhaps even Kuala Lumpur, home of the Asian Football Confederation.

That would be better than playing it behind closed doors in Pyongyang, because there would still be all the administrative hassle to work through.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see the developments over the next few days, but for the sake of security and logistical purposes, North Korea against Japan in Singapore sounds very attractive and safe to me.

Any Dangan Tours organised yet?

ends