syncSPORTS: Anyone can read it for free! Deepen your understanding of “Sport Positive Leagues” with the “J.League Climate Action Handbook” [2/3]
In April 2025, the J.League, of which Vissel Kobe is a member, announced its participation in the Sports Positive League (SPL), a framework for promoting climate action across the sports world. Furthermore, the J.League Climate Action Handbook, which serves as a manual for the SPL, is expected to be published soon. This will likely lead to increased interest in “sports and sustainability” here in Japan, and more active initiatives. Following on from last time, we’ll continue to speak to three key figures about the impact they can expect and what the future holds.
–The J.League has been hosting occasional friendly matches (preseason matches) inviting overseas soccer clubs to Japan under the name “Meiji Yasuda J.League World Challenge 2025 presented by the Nippon Foundation.” The July 2024 event will feature a match between Premier League clubs Tottenham Hotspur FC and Vissel Kobe, with a sustainability conference also being held in conjunction with the event. Tottenham Hotspur FC is a club that has reigned as the top club in the SPL for four consecutive years. Considering that the groundwork for the J.League’s participation in the SPL had already been laid at that point, it seems like meticulous preparations were being made.
Tsujii: “Of course, Tottenham Hotspur FC is a fantastic football club, but on top of that, there was discussion that we wanted that match against Vissel Kobe to have a significance beyond just a J.League club playing against a top overseas club.
As a result, it has been decided that a match for under-age players will be scheduled, based on the idea that allowing players to experience the world at a young age will be of great significance from the perspective of development.
The other was the Sustainability Conference, an initiative from the perspective of sustainability. Tottenham Hotspur FC took a very positive approach to making the conference a reality, and thanks to them we were able to create a story of ‘holding the J.League World Challenge with three axes,’ including the main event of a match between a major club and the J1 champion.”
–I remember that the game itself was of course very exciting. What was the response to the Sustainability Conference?
Tsujii: “If activities related to environmental issues are carried out without becoming a proper movement, they may gain momentum for a moment but will often die down. What is important is what to bring out and when within the overall context. In that respect, I think the Sustainability Conference was held at a good time within the overall context.
The visit to the UK in February 2024 raised awareness of the SPL within the J.League, and we believe that holding the conference with the knowledge that ‘Tottenham Hotspur FC is the number one club in the SPL’ led to a deeper understanding.”
Omura: When I visited the UK, I told Mr. Tsujii, “Let’s introduce SPL to the J.League right away. If we do what we need to do and move forward, I’m sure the clubs will start to take action,” and I spoke passionately over a beer without really understanding the overall structure or circumstances (laughs). Mr. Tsujii also told me at the time, “There are 60 clubs in the J.League. There are a really diverse range of clubs from J1 to J3, so it’s important to get everyone on the same page.” When I heard that, I remember thinking, “Indeed, when you consider Japan’s cultural background, we have to be careful not to create too big of a disparity in our approach, so this may take some time.”
However, in reality, the subsequent developments were much smoother than I had imagined. Watching from the sidelines, I felt that Mr. Tsujii’s strategy of ‘what to release and when’ was a success.”
Tsujii: I became involved with the J.League as an executive officer on January 1, 2023, but as I mentioned earlier (in the first installment), we had been very active in our work with each club even before that. In fact, we had nearly 30,000 meetings per year. These included hometown activities and social collaboration activities, such as exercise support for the disabled and elderly, mainly in the areas of education and welfare, school visits, and agricultural experiences.
However, when it comes to initiatives directly related to climate change, only about 1% of the total was involved. That’s why we were so careful about what to release and when. If someone like me, who came from the outside, suddenly announced, ‘We’re launching a sustainability department.’ Our previous initiatives will now be included in this framework,’ it would not have been pleasant for the people on the front lines who had been working so hard for so long.
This is my opinion based on my experience in my previous job, but simply bringing overseas precedents to Japan won’t work. That’s why the important thing is how to “translate” them. To do this, it’s important to first think about what each club is struggling with, what challenges they face, and how to make them feel positive. In that respect, the effect of explaining about SPL using the examples of Tottenham Hotspur FC and Liverpool FC and sharing what they are actually working on was more powerful than I expected. At the social gathering after the Sustainability Conference, the president of one J1 club said to me, “Why don’t you just go ahead and do SPL?” For me, those words were the go-ahead for us to join SPL.”
–Now that SPL has announced its participation, how will things move forward from here?
Tsujii: “We need to proceed in a way that doesn’t lead to abruptness, like, ‘OK, your club’s efforts are insufficient,’ once the rankings start to move. To that end, we’ve spent about six months in 2024 carefully explaining the basic philosophy and structure of the SPL to each club. On top of that, we’ve positioned 2025 as the year in which we will provide equal support to all clubs. The funds for this will come from a grant from the Nippon Foundation.
The SPL has 12 evaluation items, including waste management, renewable energy, water resource management, and measures against plastics. From these, each club will first choose an area that they feel suits them and where they can utilize their strengths, and after submitting a plan, the J.League will provide a certain amount of support for the costs involved in implementing it.
Once we have a clear picture of the situation, we plan to create a ranking system that will visualize the results of our activities, starting with a special season to be held during the transition period to the 2026 season (the J.League will transition to an autumn-spring system with the season starting in August from the 2026-27 season).
-What impact do you hope the SPL will have on clubs, fans, the football world and society as a whole?
Omura: “Awareness of climate change issues has gradually spread among the general public, but there is still a long way to go when it comes to areas such as resource recycling and biodiversity. This kind of environmental awareness inevitably varies depending on education and position, and it cannot be said that there is no division.
In that respect, because soccer is a sport that is rooted in the local community, there are already communities in which people of different ages, occupations, and positions naturally mix together through stadiums and clubs. Therefore, I think that SPL can also spread in such a way that it naturally draws people into a movement.”
Tsujii: Ultimately, I believe that issues such as climate change, resource circulation, and biodiversity cannot be resolved unless society as a whole brings about systemic changes. No matter how many individual actions you take, there is a limit to what you can achieve. That’s why I don’t really like being asked, ‘What do you expect from football fans and supporters?’ This is something that society as a whole has to do. That said, the J.League has 12.5 million fans and supporters, and it is true that if 10% of them, or 1.25 million people, were to support these activities, it would have a considerable impact. In this day and age, there are very few movements that mobilize such a large number of people.
I know I should say this before we even begin, but there are limits to how much an individual can solve in areas like “sustainable mobility,” one of the SPL evaluation criteria. It will be difficult to solve unless the aviation industry seriously aims to reduce CO₂ emissions. The same may be true for “low-carbon food.” Even if the food doesn’t contribute to CO₂ emissions, if stadium cuisine is all bland, it won’t last long, even if we know it’s good for the environment.
That’s why, while the J.League has achieved great results in other areas, if it were to send out the message that “sustainable mobility” is extremely difficult, that should send a social message in itself. After all, the ultimate goal is a system change that will move society as a whole. I think the value of a system like SPL is that it makes visible what we can and cannot do.”
– Mr. Koga, from the club’s perspective, how do you feel about joining SPL?
Koga: “At Vissel Kobe, we have taken the opportunity of the Rakuten Group’s 25th anniversary in 2022 to fully launch our environmental initiatives. We have made some progress as a corporation, but when we faced the question, ‘What can we do as a sports team?’ we hadn’t yet found the answer. That’s why we saw great potential in working together with fans, supporters, and partner companies, just like Liverpool FC. I believe that by working together we can achieve initiatives that we cannot do alone.
Having a framework like SPL gives us the feeling that we can take another step forward and really focus on what we need to do. Conversely, without such a system, other issues would take priority over the environment, and it would be difficult to move forward.”
Tsujii: “I thought the same at first. I thought that the most important thing for any club would be to strengthen their team. I thought there might be complaints like, ‘They should be signing players instead of spending money on the environment,’ but in reality there was almost no negative reaction to our sustainability initiatives, and instead we received a lot of positive feedback.
Speaking with the executive committee and club officials, I felt that many clubs are not just focused on winning, but are also seriously considering how they can shine in their local communities. The J.League has two strategies: “The top tier shines as national (global) content” and “60 clubs shine in their local communities.” However, for the latter, sustainable value cannot be created by winning or losing alone. Naturally, only one club in each league can win, and it is not possible for all clubs to continue winning all the time. That is why clubs are seeking ways to shine by leveraging their respective strengths, such as development and relationships with the local community. I think it is truly amazing that clubs from such diverse backgrounds have been able to agree to “work together” on the common theme of sustainability.
–What are some things that you should take into consideration when running your club in the SPL?
Tsujii: “The J.League Climate Action Handbook will soon be completed. It summarizes the significance and background of each of the SPL’s 12 categories, as well as comments from founder Claire Poole, in the preface. It then outlines how to proceed through each category in four steps, like a handbook. It also includes expert opinions, examples from clubs both in Japan and overseas, and touches on initiatives outside of football.
In addition to this handbook, we just released the “J.League Impact Report 2024: Report on Sustainability Activities” on May 27th. We have made it available for anyone to download as a PDF, and we hope that it will be used not only by clubs, but also for student theses, corporate reference material, and collaboration with local governments. That’s why we created it with the perspectives of various stakeholders in mind, including fans, supporters, companies, and local governments.
For example, to address the issue of transportation, we plan to introduce examples such as Montedio Yamagata, where if four people come, they can park in the parking lot near the stadium. This is an initiative that is also being implemented in ski resorts overseas, and if adapted, it has the potential to spread to Japan as well.
Through these examples, we hope to create materials that will make companies and local governments feel that they want to collaborate with the J.League. Please take a look.”
Read the original article here (JPN).
