Extreme Economies by Richard Davies

Author:Richard Davies
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473552302
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2019-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

FUTURE

THE ECONOMICS OF TOMORROW

7

Akita

It’s wonderful to live long.

Shigeaki Hinohara,

1911–2017

SILVER CITY

THE GAME CHANGES

Winter months in Akita bring bitter cold and plenty of snow, covering the whole of the city in a thick white blanket. The football pitches outside the headquarters of the Japan Football Association (JFA) are buried and hidden apart from the rusty goalposts that sprout up through the snow every 100 yards or so. Soccer is a summer sport here, and inside the building members of the JFA-70 league, a competition for players aged 70 or above, are mulling over the previous season and planning the coming one. ‘There are so many messages when you manage a football team, and so many emails!’ sighs Isamu Sugawara, the team’s 83-year-old head coach. ‘In the end I had to get two phones,’ – he points to two smartphones on the table – ‘One is just for football, the other just for my girlfriends.’

The team and their coach have been playing together for more than 60 years and reflect on how their style of football has adapted as they have grown old. ‘The game changes,’ says Shunetsu Suzuki, 73, the team’s star attacker. Mr Sugawara nods and explains by tracing a line through the air with his finger to show the arc a ball might create when struck from the back of the field right up to the striker. Then the coach moves his arms suddenly to make an X across his chest: ‘No! No more,’ he says, looking sad. Mr Suzuki expands: in the JFA-70 league the players can’t kick the ball very hard, so long passes are impossible. And since no one can run very fast, short and highly accurate passing is the key to success in their league, allowing the team to keep possession and conserve energy.

‘Life changes too, as you get old,’ says Mr Sugawara. ‘You alter your aims and goals.’ Like the head coach Mr Suzuki is single, a widower. ‘Your plans, they become smaller and simpler. The main thing now, the main goal, is simply to stay alive.’ Anything that gives you a routine is good, the men say, explaining how they train twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays, competing in the league and playing in three tournaments per year. But the most important thing is communication, says Mr Sugawara, showing me his smartphones more closely. They are simplified devices for the elderly with just four large buttons: email, contacts, call and text. If a player does not show up for training or a match, his team-mates get in touch immediately. The football team is a lifeline, says Mr Suzuki, ‘because the real risk for men like us is suicide’.

Within Japan, Akita is seen as a bit of a backwater. It is an agricultural place with modest claims to fame for its onsen (hot springs), its fluffy white dogs and its sake, so good because it is kept cool by the copious snowfall. Akita is also Japan’s most aged region: with an average age over

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