What can Japan do for Asia? Does Japan want to be part of Asia's soccer fraternity? It's a long-standing question, but now maybe some answers are emerging.
With the World Cup boosting soccer's profile in the region, the Japan Football Association is planning to launch a couple of new projects -- a new tournament for the East Asian area and a new regional federation to run it -- in an attempt to boost soccer and soccer's power among East Asian countries.
According to the JFA's blueprints, the new competition will feature all nine countries in East Asia: Japan, South Korea, China, North Korea, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Guam and Mongolia. However, the six weaker nations -- i.e., not South Korea, China and Japan -- will have to play a preliminary competition to determine just one qualifier. This qualifier would then join South Korea, China and Japan in the final stage of the tournament, which would be played on a round-robin basis. The new tournament, if it gets the nod, could be held as early as 2003.