Japan’s Premier League wave leaves Korea behind
Japan is on the verge of sending as many as 10 players into the Premier League next season, a stunning rise from just four last year. The latest addition is Takehiro Tomiyasu, who joined Crystal Palace on Friday, while Tatsuhiro Sakamoto helped Coventry City secure promotion in April and Daizen Maeda and Hidemasa Morita moved to newly promoted Ipswich Town and Hull City, respectively. Japan’s established names, including Kaoru Mitoma at Brighton & Hove Albion, Wataru Endo at Liverpool, Daichi Kamada at Crystal Palace and Ao Tanaka at Leeds United, underline how broad the talent pipeline has become across England’s top flight.
The article frames the surge as a sharp contrast with South Korea, which could be left with no Premier League representatives at all. That would mark a stark reversal from the era when Park Ji-sung’s move to Manchester United in 2005 opened the door for Korean players in England. Japan still may add more before the window closes, with Kaishu Sano linked to Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, while Ayase Ueda is also being courted. For J League watchers, the story reinforces how domestic development is translating into elite European demand at an unprecedented scale.