First the good news: Five Japan internationals now play abroad. With Naohiro Takahara playing for Boca Juniors and Hidetoshi Nakata, Junichi Inamoto, Shinji Ono and Akinori Nishizawa all employed in Europe, Japan coach Philippe Troussier has good reason to be optimistic ahead of next year's World Cup.
Obviously, the Frenchman would like to see another half-a-dozen Japan players follow the recent trend, but beggars can't be choosers.
It won't be long now before every Harry Redknapp lookalike in a sheepskin coat will be rubbing his hands at the prospect of picking up "some Japanese player on the cheap" and marking up the prices of their club's replica shirts.