Five hundred of our employees in Kumamoto were affected by last month’s earthquakes. We put out a call for our employees to come support Roasso Kumamoto today, though of course those from our branch offices in Chiba supported for JEF. We had 500 employees watching from the upper stand and they joined in the cheering of their own accord. It was great to see football bring people together.

It must have been physically tough for the players but they ran hard until the final whistle, which was very moving.

Mitsuru Murai (J.League Chairman)

(Roasso Kumamoto) lost an entire month and had five matches postponed. They may have lost today, but they got up after they fell, ran when they were hurt, and kept chasing after the ball. It was truly inspirational, both to myself and surely to the people of Kumamoto.

Today was the anniversary of the first J.League match. The exchange of cheers between supporters of the two teams was very touching, as was the applause for (current Roasso and former JEF striker) Seiichiro Maki. The sight of JEF players going to salute Roasso supporters after the match isn’t something you would see every day, and I want to thank JEF’s supporters from the bottom of my heart.

Four days ago I visited Kumamoto, and both the city and prefectural governments are cooperating to bring Umakana Yokana back into use. It’s up to them to decide what’s best for the region, but I’ve been told that they are eager to re-open the stadium and it’s welcome news.