Tomiyasu Should Learn From Them? Japanese Players Who Starred in Serie A

Kazuyoshi Miura

The first Japanese player who landed in Italy was Kazuyoshi Miura, known in Japan as "King Kazu". He joined to Genoa on 1994.

Spinelli, the Genoa President at that time, was astonished about the great numbers Miura had registered in the J-League competitions and he really wanted him in Italy.

For Japan, it was an incredible thing to have a Japanese player in Serie A for the first time so Fuji Television decided to broadcast all Genoa`s games in Japan.

In the first game of the season, he was chosen by the coach Franco Scoglio as a starting member. The first opponent was AC Milan that on the previous season won the league.

Sadly during that game, Miura had a crash with Milan defender Franco Baresi and he fractures the nasal bone and damages the orbital nerve.

Genoa’s results that season was bad and downgrade to Serie B. Miura went back to his previous team, Verdy Kawasaki.

Hidetoshi Nakata

He came to Perugia four years from Miura. Perugia`s president Gaucci was pleasantly surprised by his performance during the 1998 World Cup and brought him to Italy. 

After a very great time in Perugia where Nakata showed his wonderful skills, he accepted a transfer to Roma, under coach Fabio Capello.

Even if he couldn't play on his preferred position because of Francesco Totti’s presence, he showed a lot of wonderful assists to the fans.

His greatest performance at Roma was on 06/05/2001 against Juventus. Both teams were fighting to win the league and Juventus was leading the game 2-0.

The coach decided to change Francesco Totti with Hidetoshi Nakata and the game was completely changed.

With a long shot, Nakata was able to put the team back in the game, before he set up Vincenzo Montella to score the equalizer. Roma won the league that season. 

After Roma`s adventure Nakata joined other 3 Italian teams: Parma, Bologna, and Fiorentina.

Keisuke Honda

In the 2014 Honda transferred from CSKA Moscow to AC Milan. He also realized the dream to wear jersey number 10 for the Rossoneri. 

Little by little, he raised his performance level, and after the World Cup of 2014, he started the new season with 10 appearances and 6 goals in a row.

After the 2015 Asia Cup, he lost his original position at Milan and started to play as a left winger. However,  he always made the most of it and registered plenty of wonderful assists.

The following season, even without the possibility to play as starting member, he decided to stay at Milan until the end of his contract.

His last present to Milan was his goal by a free kick that permitted the club to qualify for the Europa League.

Shunsuke Nakamura

"The Asian Roberto Baggio" Shunsuke Nakamura joined Reggina in 2002 from Yokohama F Marinos. His high precision and artistic free kicks astonished all Italian fans.

In his first season in Italy, he scored 8 goals.

After the first season, Nakamura suffered various injuries but he is remembered with enthusiasm by fans as a player able to score in very important/difficult situations. He would go on to make his name at Scottish club Celtic, where he played over 100 games and is renowned for his free-kick accuracy. 

Yuto Nagatomo

Nagatomo transferred from FC Tokyo to Cesena in 2011. Even with a big difference of level from J-league to Serie A, he was able to show from the start his excellent defending ability and attacking quality. 

Thanks to his fantastic performances in the winter of the same season he was able to transfer to Milan, becoming the first Japanese player at Inter.

In the 2013/2014 season, Nagatomo established himself as a key number of the squad, he scored five goals and became the highest scoring defender that season. 

In the following seasons, his presence as a starting eleven member began to lessen. Regardless, he didn't surrender and he continued to cheer up the team also in that difficult situation. In some matches, he was also chosen as captain of the team.

After playing an incredible 210 games with Inter, in 2017 he transferred to Galatasaray in the Turkish league.

Takayuki Morimoto

Morimoto transferred from Tokyo Verdy to Catania at the age of 20. His debut was fantastic, as he entered in the middle of the game against Atalanta and scored a goal that allowed Catania to pick up a draw.

His best season was 2008/2009 season under the coach Walter Zenga. In that season he participated in 25 games, scoring 9 goals and making 3 assists. Thanks to him Catania was able to win against Napoli, Roma, Palermo and other teams.

After that season he received also offer from other foreign clubs but he decided to stay at Catania, showing his loyalty. Catania`s supporters called him "Maremoto" which in Italian means "Tsunami”.

In 2012 he transferred to Novara and that was his last season on Serie A.

Morimoto also holds the record of being the youngest Japanese player to make his professional debut and the youngest ever player to score in the J.League.