J. League’s Asian Strategy: Football Cooperation as a New Feature in Thai-Japanese Relations

Abstract

In 2012, Japan launched J. League's Asian Strategy as a kind of sports diplomacy to strengthen collaboration among Asian partners and to boost own economy benefits while competing with regional major powers. In this moment, the article has two research objectives for understanding the shape of Thai-Japanese football cooperation. Firstly, key actors in Thailand who have been engaging in football activities promoting their relationship. Lastly, the activities that manifest the football cooperation as a new facet of Thai-Japanese relations. Research methodology is qualitative research with documentation from both primary and secondary sources, which procedurally includes search and collect, content analysis, and discussion though the concept of sports diplomacy. This study argues that football association, football clubs, and footballers are the key actors who play a vital part in driving the above-mentioned strategy. The Football Association of Thailand collaborates with the Japan’s counterpart to initiate their comprehensive football cooperation, particularly on the enhancement of the skills of Thailand's football national teams for both men and women by Japanese professional coaches. Furthermore, 11 football club partnerships have been formed since the beginning that mainly focus on sharing management knowledge and youth exchanges. Thai footballers in the J. League also contribute to increase awareness of Japanese football and spread other parts of Japanese stories across Thai society. Many of the activities listed above have a constructive effect on the bilateral relations. With these mentions, the football cooperation is now a new feature in Thai-Japanese relations.