JonH wrote:

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Non brit comment but what's the deal between Japan and Brazil? One of the qualifiers today is sakaomoto, a Brazilian of Japanese background. Japan of course has taro daniel, a Japanese with Brazilian heritage. Is there some historic links between the two countries?

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It's an interesting story Jon, you got me to do a small bit of research. You're right in that the largest Japanese population in the world outside Japan is in Brazil, with approx 1.6 mill people there of Japanese descent. I thought the immigration may have begun post WWII, but it began much earlier from 1908, and is a more surprising and unusual story than I expected too - you can read it below!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Brazilians

JonH wrote:

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Michael D wrote:

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JonH wrote:

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Non brit comment but what's the deal between Japan and Brazil? One of the qualifiers today is sakaomoto, a Brazilian of Japanese background. Japan of course has taro daniel, a Japanese with Brazilian heritage. Is there some historic links between the two countries?

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It's an interesting story Jon, you got me to do a small bit of research. You're right in that the largest Japanese population in the world outside Japan is in Brazil, with approx 1.6 mill people there of Japanese descent. I thought the immigration may have begun post WWII, but it began much earlier from 1908, and is a more surprising and unusual story than I expected too - you can read it below!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Brazilians

 

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Hi Michael - read this with interest. It is an interesting story and i see Brazilians are now making the move over to Japan, and I know there are a lot of Brazilian footballers in the J league, although money will also be a draw there. 

In the football Copa America they have on occasion invited guest teams to play and I recall Japan playing one year, which surprised me at the time but not now.

It is also amazing how the world has changed over 100 years - reading the article it many countries had a racist desire to keep their countries white only (USA, Australia are mentioned), which is something that seems unfathomable to most of us today - although some might argue that type of thinking has always been around and is certainly around in some places today with the rise of the right and countries looking to become more isolationist again.  

 

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Yes, although I didn't highlight it in my own remarks, I thought that was very interesting that so many Japanese went to Brazil in the early decades of the 20th century because it was the one of the few countries that was not (initially) racist towards them... 

wolf wrote:

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L16: (4) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 103 (49+54) beat Hugo Dellien & Guido Pella (BOL/ARG) CR 346 (217+129) 6-4 7-5

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QF:  Sander Gille & Joren Vliegen (BEL/BEL) CR 171 (86+85) vs (4) Luke Bambridge & Jonny O'Mara CR 103 (49+54)

Latest doubles race positions with two of the pairs through to their SFs ...

7. Ram & Salisbury 690 points
8. Murray & Soares 610
9. Bambridge & O'Mara 555

A SF win and Jo & Rajeev poised to rise a few more places. 

I watched a bit of it yesterday and it didn't look indoors to me!