Japan Rugby Football Union went a long way to improving rugby in Japan both on the domestic and international front with the news last week that it was abandoning the traditional company championship for a new nationwide 12-team tournament starting in September 2004.

The new league, the brainchild of former national coach Hiroaki Shukuzawa, seems to have the backing of the companies, and will involve the 12 teams playing in a league format with the top eight moving on to play in a knockout tournament to decide the national champion.

The plan, at present, is that the league will include the 2003-2004 champions of Kanto, Kansai and Kyushu, the top eight teams in the company tournament, with the remaining teams being decided via a tournament to be held at the end of that season. Once the league gets going the bottom-three teams will be relegated each season and replaced by the teams that finish top in the three regional leagues.