The Japan Football Association has this season introduced a new status for its top referees, called "S.R."

S.R. stands for "Special Referee," and the status can be awarded to experienced referees deemed to be of a high enough standard. Only Division One referees are eligible for S.R.-status and they must sign a one-year deal with the JFA, which is renewable at the end of the year.

They are required to officiate in at least one game a week, train twice a week, take lectures and work on analysis of their game.

Japan's World Cup referees, Toru Kamikawa and Masayoshi Okada, have been named by the JFA to become the first S.R.-status refs. Kamikawa, 38, has been appointed by FIFA to officiate in the coming World Cup, while Okada, 43, officiated in a first-round match between England and Tunisia in the 1998 World Cup in France.

Although details relating to injury-related insurance and retirement have yet to be decided, the S.R. refs will be paid better than their colleagues, with earnings reaching the 10 million yen mark. In other words, they are full-time professionals.

The JFA said the S.R. system has been introduced following instructions from FIFA. Soccer's world governing body has urged Asian countries that have a professional league to also employ full-time professional referees.

But the JFA is very reluctant to call the new referees professionals.

"We don't want to call them professional. The word 'pro' sounds troublesome," JFA general secretary Kenji Mori said.

According to the JFA, 27 out of 42 referees and 53 out of 80 assistant referees are civil servants, with many being school teachers. Taking time off to officiate in games can cause resentment from their colleagues at work and by branding the Special Referees as professionals, the JFA is highly concerned that this may create further problems for the non-S.R. refs.

"We have a good number of referees but they are often under pressure at their office," Mori said. "Though they may want to officiate in a game for us on a Wednesday night, for example, they must first find someone to cover their shift or arrange their schedule accordingly. If they can't get help from their colleagues, they can't referee. So, we must be careful about carrying out this new system."

Okada said he actually had to change his job twice in order to continue his refereeing career before he eventually secured a place at the J. League office in 1995. Kamikawa joined the JFA as a staff member in 2000 from Bellmare Hiratsuka, having played for the club from 1986-90 when the team was still called Fujita and in the non-professional JSL. Hired by soccer organizations, both Okada and Kamikawa obviously had an advantage over other refs.

"But still," Okada said, "I always had to think about the assignments given to my office. With the introduction of the S.R. system, it makes life much easier mentally."

Kamikawa agreed. "Now I can focus on what I've always wanted to do. I'd like to improve my refereeing skills as much as I can," he remarked.

Since the start of the J. League in 1993, the nation's professional league has invited first-class foreign referees to officiate in games over here. They set the standard that Japanese referees should be aiming for, providing they could focus on their refereeing duties.

The JFA has said it will have talks with the organizations and companies that employ its non-S.R. refs, in an attempt to bring about a better understanding of what it wants from its referees.

Over the last 10 years, Japanese soccer officials have looked after their players well with the establishment of the professional J. League. But their referees have been left alone.

Dick Jol of the Netherlands, one of the first UEFA professional referees, who officiated in the J. League last year, often said that Japan needed to establish a good system to help train referees and improve their standard both mentally and physically.

Along with the introduction of the S.R. system, the JFA has finally launched such a system -- designed to nurture first-class referees.

Japan's soccer governing body has hired former international referee Leslie Mottram on a three-year contract as the chief instructor for the new education program. The 51-year-old Scotsman officiated in the J. League from 1996 to 2001.

According to the JFA, half of the remaining 13 Division One referees have shown an interest in becoming S.R.-status refs, and the JFA is hoping to see all of its Division One referees change to S.R.-status in the future.

The JFA said what is important is the quality of the referee's performance not what the system is called. That's probably true. But it is still important to set a standard for future referees.

Under the new system, Kamikawa and Okada would set that standard on the pitch, while the JFA and Mottram would do things off the field.

If things go well the JFA may soon be proudly calling the Special Referees professionals.