Japan's most soccer-crazy place is Shizuoka Prefecture. "We have more grass soccer fields than any other prefecture, and offer players excellent conditions. And we have more soccer players and fans, both young and old."

This is the justified boast of Yamamoto Teruo, the president of the Shizuoka Prefecture Soccer Association. Pint-sized fields and goals for kids' soccer are found in almost every nursery school in the prefecture. More than half of all elementary school kids belong to a local soccer team--about 15,000 on 350 teams. Quite a few J. League stars, like Nakayama Masashi and Nanami Hiroshi, once played on youth teams in Shizuoka.

Yamamoto has worked in an advisory capacity with the youth soccer team of his own city, Fujieda, for the last 34 years. "More than anything else, I like watching kids play, because their enjoyment of the game means that the number of talented soccer players will keep growing."

His eyes gleam kindly while watching some of Japan's future World Cup players.

The Urawa Red Diamonds pro soccer team is based in Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo. The team's fans are known as the most avid supporters of any J. League club. They are proud of this label, and have begun forming a number of volunteer groups to prepare for World Cup events in Saitama.

They give all kinds of reasons for volunteering. "This is the only chance I'll ever have to get involved in a World Cup hosted by my own country, and I want to make sure people who come here from all over the world receive a warm welcome." "I want to get to know people from different countries--even if we can't understand each other's languages we can be friends, because we all like soccer!" "The World Cup gives us an excellent opportunity to develop a local sports culture."

Their motivations may be different, but they all share a common goal--to ensure the success of World Cup matches in Saitama. Representatives from different volunteer groups get together on a regular basis to coordinate activities, and preparations are going smoothly for the big welcome in 2002. They plan to maintain contact with volunteer groups in other host cities, and to reach out to the world through the Internet, giving information on lodgings near the stadiums, foreign exchange outlets, and more.