The Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee recently announced the results of volunteer applications for next year's World Cup.
The total number of applications (28,729) well surpassed JAWOC's expectations, to the relief of the local organizing committees who initially had struggled to attract enough applicants to fill the 16,500 vacancies.
Among the 10 Japanese host cities -- in addition to JAWOC's headquarters in Tokyo -- Saitama, Yokohama and Osaka had the best response. Saitama collected 4,272 applications for 1,900 vacancies while Yokohama and Osaka, needing to find 1,500 volunteers each, had 3,805 and 3,795, respectively. Oita also attracted one of the best responses with 2,343 applications for its requirement of 1,000. Niigata had the dubious distinction of being the only city that failed to reach its target figure. While 1,828 applied in Niigata, the local organizers were hoping to attract 2,400. Sapporo, meanwhile, had the lowest total of applicants (1,337) but figures it only needs 1,000.