In Japanese football's eight decades of history, the last few years have clearly been an epoch-making period because of one trend: an influx of American quarterbacks.
Since the IBM BigBlue became the first team to have an American — Kevin Craft — at the position in 2012, the league has added one after another every year. A couple of clubs followed the trend this year, and a total of five American quarterbacks are currently playing for Japanese teams.
Craft had a big impact in his first year in Japan. With the ex-UCLA player under center, the BigBlue turned into a prolific offensive team. They averaged 367.7 total yards (184.4 passing) in the 2011 fall season, and improved to 469.7 yards (279.9) with Craft the following year.