Should Taro Kono be successful in his campaign to become president of the Liberal Democratic Party — and, by extension, Japan’s next prime minister — those scrutinizing his resume will come across a number of executive-level positions he holds at sporting organizations ranging from the Japan Racehorse Association to the Kanagawa Track and Field Association.
But it’s the 58-year-old’s tenure as chairman of the J. League’s Shonan Bellmare between 2000 and 2005 that residents of his Kanagawa Prefecture district, which includes his hometown of Hiratsuka, remember fondly even today.
After all, without Kono’s efforts there’s little chance that the club would have survived — to say nothing of returning to the top division and producing a new generation of world-class players.