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The country has welcomed spectators to stadiums, voices, chants and highly orchestrated percussion for which they are known are now strictly prohibited.
By Motoko Rich
Photographs via Noriko Hayashi
TOKYO – As players pushed the ball into the field, I heard the wrinkled badge of a plastic bag in 4 full rows in front of me, where a guy pulled out a bird mortar to eat.
It’s the sound of Japanese professional football in the era of coronavirus.
While primary sports leagues in the United States and Europe play basically before empty stands or cardboard glasses, Japanese enthusiasts have been watching matches since early July, after a four-month break.
But there are trade-offs.
Normally, Japanese enthusiasts are not only noisy, but also incredibly orchestrated and fully disciplined. During a match, they sing, clap, sing, play and wave huge team flags, a noisy spectacle that rivals the real game in the box for entertainment. .
Now, most of these activities are prohibited for fear that others will wake up in a frenzy of screaming, while spraying a vector for the spread of the virus.
Then, when I attended a home game on a recent Sunday surrounded by approximately 4,600 FC Tokyo enthusiasts, one of the top 18 groups in the Japanese Professional Football League, or J-League, viewers were scrupulously silent, with the exception of an occasional whisper of food packaging or a spontaneous burst of applause.
Without the general roar, I recorded each and every blow!When the tacos found the ball.
Under a moon in a parenthesis, a chorus of cicadas glowed with the cries of players in the spotlight.
And when enthusiasts cheered for a purpose or an intelligent save, it made the game feel like a synchonic concert, with cheers between movements.
Japan, where the virus has had a persistent presence since January but has never escaped as it has in the United States and Europe, receives stadium enthusiasts as part of an effort to keep its economy running.
The country did nothing to lock up society to suppress the virus, and a national emergency declared in April depended largely on voluntary compliance. Even in recent weeks, when Japan reported more than 1,000 new infections in a few days, there was no motion for a stop.
Business leaders coined the slogan “with crown” to describe their threat relief philosophy while living with the virus. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe popularized the term as a guiding precept of the country’s reaction to coronavirus.
As a component of the market, the public is invited to adhere to strict rules. In general, other people settle.
Most use natural mask and generously spray bottles of hand sanitization that have appeared everywhere. On public transport, others are asked not to speak, so that they have the option of emitting viral waste into aerosols.
Late last month, Japan’s central government extended restrictions on giant meetings to no more than 5,000 people until the end of September.
On the way to FC Tokyo’s party with a friend, a passionate subscription holder, and his daughter, almost no one else spoke on the small crowded train, with his nose sunk on his phone or in an occasional book (in all honesty, this is a habit for Japanese travelers).
In the stadium, he underwent an infrared thermometer scan at the entrance gates. Ground markings kept enthusiasts at bay while covering for food or souvenirs.
In the stands, a row of two remained empty, with two vacant seats on each side of each single-priced ticket. Even the circle of family members may simply not sit side-by-side. – unemployed During the match, all spectators stood still.
Ticket buyers were asked to provide their names and touch the main points so that touch trackers could locate them if there was a case of coronavirus in the stadium, according to the football league, no spectator has been inflamed in matches since they opened.
Katsutoshi Ito, an unwavering fan who has attended top home games since 2011, said he felt safer in the stadium than in a bar or restaurant. In the empty seats in front of him, he covered himself with team scarves and towels, as well as two stuffed dogs, the FC Tokyo mascot, one dressed in a tiny white cloth mask.
For die-hard fans, the toughest settings are a ban on making a song, making a song and waving the flag they like to make.
“That’s because we’re all human,” said Shoji Fujimura, general manager of the J-league coronavirus reaction office, which helped expand regulations for viewers with public fitness experts and Japanese baseball league officials, who also organized limited-time games. number of spectators.
“Shaking a flag or drum can excite people,” Fujimura added. “And it can unite others, which can cause everyone to raise their voices. “
The same applies to alcohol, which is prohibited.
The night I looked, enthusiasts couldn’t attend, but they shouted cheers of goal win or groaned audibly for missed opportunities. At one point, I heard the wrong fan warn an advocate for a striker from the opposing team: “He’s getting close, he’s getting close!”Sometimes I would listen to other spectators urging an attacker to” shoot!”
But for the most part, the only noise in the stands was intermittent applause. During the broadcast of “I’ll Never Walk Alone”, FC Tokyo’s theme song, enthusiasts, who ran the lyrics, quietly held the group’s handkerchiefs in the air, some waving luminous bars.
“Everyone knows we have for everyone,” said Kiyomi Muramatsu, who has supported since 2000, and said his four young men had grown up watching games from the stands.
“We also don’t need to cause unrest at FC Tokyo,” Muramatsu said, “or return to a stage where spectators are not allowed in. “
FC Tokyo coach Kenta Hasegawa said the occasional applause is greater than nothing. “While they don’t inspire us with their voices and making noises, all that excitement is included in their applause,” he said.
A J-League team, Kyushu-based Sagan Tosu, was forced to suspend games in August after 12 players and staff, adding to the coach, tested positive for coronavirus.
Kentaro Iwata, infectious disease specialist at Kobe University Hospital, said that if the incidence of infections remains low in Japan and the audience follows social estrangation regulations and has moved away from hugs or five, “I would say that existing measures are acceptable, for now. “
But Dr. Iwata said that while the outdoor stadium is safe, exercise or bus travel to events, or in cases where unmasked enthusiasts communicate with each other, they can pose greater risks.
Some enthusiasts were asked to stay away. Sumie Tanaka, 65, who attended FC Tokyo matches for 15 years as a circle of relatives, said her son’s employer had banned her from attending primary events.
“He’ll paint every day, ” said Mrs. Tanaka. “He knows that if he comes to games and gets infected, it’ll be bad. “
The football league has at its own time one of the current regulations; viewers can now clap to the beat.
“After watching some matches, we discovered that rhythmic applause inevitably occurred,” said Kei Takahashi, FC Tokyo’s ceo, “but that brings extra emotion and outstanding voices. “
During Sunday’s match, subscription holder Noriyuki Yamagami attempted to compensate for audience shortages by cutting cardboard on the team’s jerseys in the flanking seats.
Distrustful of any exposure to the virus, he placed a handkerchief on his surgical mask for additional coverage and said he was lately having dinner with his circle of relatives at home as a precautionary measure.
But he said he just couldn’t stay away.
“When I saw the games on a screen, I was just looking to come and smell, have the smells, listen to the sounds,” Yamagami said. “It’s not the way it used to be, but I felt like I was looking to be here. “
Hikari Hida contributed to the investigation.
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