Soccer

AFC Asian Cup: Japan Football Association Protests over Discriminative Posts

REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Japanese national soccer team’s head coach Hajime Moriyasu and Japan Football Association President Kozo Tashima attend a news conference to name the squad for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, in Tokyo, Japan November 1, 2022.

Jiji Press

17:50 JST, January 25, 2024

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—Japan Football Association President Kozo Tashima has said that the association makes a firm protest against discriminative comments posted on social media by fans against players of the Japanese national men’s soccer team competing in the Asian Cup in Qatar.

Such comments are “absolutely unacceptable,” Tashima said in a statement released on Wednesday. He added that posting discriminative comments “goes against moves in society to respect diversity and is shameful behavior.”

The statement came after Zion Suzuki, a goalkeeper of Japan’s Samurai Blue national team playing in the Asian Cup, claimed that he received discriminative comments on social media.

Tashima said the association will aim to stamp out discriminative behaviors and will not hesitate to take legislative measures.