Fumi Tanaka – Japanese Coaching Aspirations & His Views On The Development of Japanese Rugby

Fumiaki “Fumi” Tanaka recently hung up his boots on an illustrious professional career at the end of the JRLO 2023-2024 season which saw the Japanese scrum half capped 75 times for his country over a period of the national men’s XV team’s greatest success. He tells us more about how the awareness of rugby has changed in Japan and his coaching aspirations.

Fumi Tanaka- Career Playing Highlights

Made most famous by having a hand in the Japanese dismantling the Springboks at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in Brighton, Fumi Tanaka has had a career of many highs which saw him also defeat Ireland and Scotland at the Japan RWC in 2019 before losing to eventual champions, South Africa in the quarterfinal stage. This was the last of the three Rugby World Cups he was involved in.

At the club level, he was the first ethnic Japanese player to play in the Super Rugby in 2013 where he spent four seasons at the Dunedin-based Highlanders following eye-catching performances at NPC level for Otago. He also played for the Sunwolves, Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights, Canon Eagles, and in his most recent seasons with NEC Green Rockets under former Welsh national coach Wayne Pivac.

On his small size as a player, Tanaka said he always had teammates, who were almost like a family, that supported him while his favourite squad to have played alongside over his long and fruitful career was with the Highlanders in New Zealand.

“The time I spent in the Highlanders changed my attitude to play or train rugby. My teammates were really good in their mindset during training.” He admires their ability to enjoy the game and switch intensity when different sessions required it – an experience he found all New Zealand national team players had too.

“They were really good at switching off or switching on between rugby and non-rugby things. That is a big thing for me to have learned and I always try to teach that to my teammates in Japan after coming back to Japan. So if possible, I would like to change that kind of mindset among the Japanese players in the future too.”

On who the toughest opposition was that he faced, he pointed to powerhouses South Africa and New Zealand, saying that those teams in particular, even if his side put in a good performance, always demanded so much effort and intensity.

Photograph: Yutaka/AFLO/Nippon News/Corbis

Although a cliche, Tanaka points to THAT win over the Springboks in Brighton as a career highlight, mainly due to the impact the win had on increased coverage for the sport in Japan. “That’s a big moment in my lifetime, the best gift for myself. I actually made many mistakes in that game, but it was a great win.”

Progress Japanese Rugby Has Made – Fumi Tanaka

Tanaka earned his Japan debut cap in 2008 against Arabian Gulf, and there was only a crowd of about 4,000 people in Osaka, whereas the recent JRLO has just experienced a record-breaking season for crowd attendance, and the Brave Blossoms loss to England in June 2024 was attended by over 44,000 in Tokyo

“I think I’ve been playing for probably 11 years in the national team. The awareness of the game was something that Eddie Jones helped change. We really had a low level of awareness of the game before he joined us, and he actually opened up our eyes to so many aspects of the game.

It was really a key moment for us to be able to play against the traditional, stronger rugby nations and the popularity of the rugby, probably after 2015 when we won against South Africa in Brighton, I could really feel like the people’s attitude to us, and also the game of rugby in Japan changed after that match,” explained Tanaka.

He added that when he started his career, although there was a relatively low level of awareness about the game and the Japan national team players, but nowadays, the players get more public recognition.

There is much more involvement too, he added. “Young people started having more interest in the game of rugby so there are a lot more players who really wanted to be national team players. There is a  higher level of awareness but I still think that there is more to improve for the future and I am kind of expecting the awareness to deepen.”

Impact Of Japan Rugby League One

On how much impact the Japan Rugby League One has had on growing interest in the game in Japan, he explained that having more world-class players has had a very good effect on the JRLO and raised the level of the national team.

However, he cautioned on the effect it could have too. “We have so many international players coming that some of the Japanese players are missing their opportunity to play in the JRLO matches. We need to think about how we can maintain the brand because I agree that fans are expecting the Japanese players to get more game time. We can keep the balance of the international and also the local players.”

Tanaka added, “I think the Japanese player needs to put in a greater effort to be able to stand on the pitch on game day in the JRLO and there are lots of gaps between the local players and international players but there is a good way to narrow down that gap. I also think Japanese university rugby is something really unique, and also contributes to the local game as well. I think if we can have a more flexible environment for those younger players so that they can find more options to pursue their own career, that will give them more choices or options.”

Asked whether he felt the influx of international coaching talent was having a positive impact on Japanese rugby and if the quality of Japanese coaches had been improving, Tanaka said, “For us Japanese, we are really good at doing something told by someone else, but we are not good at thinking by ourselves to what to do. In that aspect, it’s good to have those great coaches from overseas because they always give us proper advice on what to do.

In my opinion, we need some young Japanese coaches who independently become good coaches. Eddie Jones has some local Japanese coaches as assistants and we need that kind of system, so we develop our local Japanese talent.”

Currently, none of the Brave Blossoms squad plays outside of Japan, but the Sakura XV for example have players competing in the UK, New Zealand and Australia in competitive leagues. We asked if he felt more Japanese male players should be looking at a stint overseas too for the experience.

“Yes, I really think that they should go more (overseas). I think there are some players who have these kinds of chances, but they don’t go as they have family or,  it’s easier for them to stay in Japan, but for me, I think they should have gone out to have a wider viewpoint of the game. If you just stay in Japan, it’s comfortable, but you really don’t become hungry to want something more. So, yes,  I really think they should go and take up the opportunities.”

Coaching Ambitions – Fumi Tanaka

The Japanese player watched the Brave Blossoms lose to England in late June 2024 and was commentating for local Japanese TV but he has already set his sights on embarking on a coaching career which he hopes one day will see him helm the Brave Blossoms as Head Coach.

He will start off mentoring and coaching at the Green Rockets NAACP Academy and Tanaka said, “I’d like to learn more about the coaching and one day become a head of the Japan national team.”

He is quick to point to some of his coaching mentors over the years in which he learned his craft to become one of the best scrum halves in his prime, those include current Springbok coach and former All Black Tony Brown, current Japan Men’s Head Coach Eddie Jones and others.

Of the latter he commented, “When I was with him, every day was a chance for me to learn something and his way of thinking and his awareness of the game was really valuable for me. It’s actually him who taught me that there was something more that I could improve in my career. I’d like to keep that network with very good coaches so that I can be another good coach as well.”

He also mentioned the traits of Tony Brown, who he said “is really someone who helps create great rugby, and he also has a great relationship with the players. So I’d like to follow up with him in many ways, so that I can develop many good players and  also create a strong bond in the team, like one family.”

The JRFU and Japanese clubs have also signed agreements with New Zealand and Australia to build partnerships and forge pathways which could open up opportunities.

On his own improvements, as he moves into this next chapter of his career, Tanaka says he wants to improve his language skills, “which is really something you need at the international level.” He also acknowledged the differences between the attitude to the game in Japan and improving the general mindset. “If we can have more Japanese players going out and then gaining playing experiences and really grabbing their chances, I want those younger players to experience that as well, then I think they will understand more about the beauty of the game of rugby as well.”

The Japanese representative teams are busy across the board over the coming months with the men’s and women’s sevens sides playing the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Japan XV taking on the NZ Maori in two tests, and the U20s competing in the World Rugby U20 Trophy tournament. The Sakura XV host the USA before playing WXV2 and the Brave Blossoms have a bust 2024 test schedule.

On the questions of Sevens Rugby, which he admits he never played himself, he said “I didn’t play any Sevens but I always enjoy watching seven-aside and it’s definitely something that we need to develop further (due to the skillsets they learn)”.

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