Tokyo (AFP) - After watching the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Kozo Tashima started playing football for the first time in his career, and since then he has dedicated his life to developing the game in Japan.

Published on: 06/11/2026 - 09:57

The 68-year-old man is preparing to become the first person from Japan to run for the presidency of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), after he announced his intention to run in the elections scheduled for March against the Swiss-Italian-Lebanese Gianni Infantino.

Tashima has held several roles as a player, coach and administrator in football, and has a reputation as a reliable man.

He rarely makes headlines, and one of the few occasions he appeared outside the sports pages was when he became one of the first public figures in Japan to contract the coronavirus in March 2020.

He spent a period of study at the German Sports University in Cologne, and he considered that this experience changed his view of the role of sports in society.

He says his decision to run for the presidency of FIFA is based on the conviction that "in the age of business and money, sport must firmly adhere to its integrity."

He added to reporters after announcing his candidacy, "The worst that could happen is for (Infantino) to continue without elections. I feel that this is a test of whether FIFA has the ability to purify itself."

Born in southern Kumamoto Prefecture, Tashima led his team to Japan's prestigious national high school championship title.

In the absence of a professional football league in the country at the time, he aspired to become a physical education teacher, so he enrolled in university, and there he was called up to play with the Japanese national team.

After graduation, he joined a Japanese amateur league club, but quickly retired from playing and headed to Germany to study coaching.

He described the "deep shock" he felt at the superior skills of the players there and the way football was viewed.

“Even in 1980, training in Germany was largely based on science and methodology,” he said.

"Everything seemed like a different world from Japan, and that was a big cultural shock for me," he continued.

Long experience

Tashima returned home determined to use what he learned in Germany to help develop Japanese football.

He trained a university team before joining the Japanese Football Association, where he worked on development programs and supervised national teams in various age groups.

He later rose to the positions of the Japanese Federation before being elected as its president in 2016, in parallel with his membership in the Executive Committee of the Asian Football Confederation and the FIFA Council.

During his term as president of the Japanese Federation, he fired the national team coach, Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic, two months before the start of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Halilhodzic was not popular with the players, so he was replaced by Akira Nishino, and Japan reached the quarter-finals before being eliminated by Belgium.

“Some people told me that I was not the one who signed Halilhodzic, so it would not be my fault if the team lost,” Tashima said. “But as president, the whole responsibility was on me.”

Tashima stepped down as president of the Japanese Football Association in 2024, before being appointed honorary president.

He said that he decided to run for the presidency of FIFA in order to "contribute to the further development of world football."

He added that he was upset by FIFA's sudden decision to lift the suspension of American striker Folarin Balogun during this year's World Cup, following the intervention of US President Donald Trump.

He also said that he had an objection to the travel restrictions imposed by the American authorities on the Iranian national team participating in the World Cup.

Tashima, who enjoys the support of the local union, stressed that his candidacy for the presidency “is not a matter of winning or losing.”

"What matters is that we share with the world the integrity that Japanese football has built over the years," he added.

© 2026 AFP

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