The World Cup's first match in Japan will be held at Niigata Stadium "Big Swan" on June 1, 2002, and will be celebrated with a traditional show of drumming.

Just before the first match, a traditional drum troupe based on the island of Sado in Niigata Prefecture will perform for the crowd. The troupe, called Kodo, has electrified audiences in Japan and abroad with its dynamic drumming on more than 30 taiko drums, some measuring 1 meter in diameter.

One of Kodo's staff members says with a keen glint in his eye, "Kodo began as a group of people studying Niigata's traditional performing arts. We hope that during the World Cup many people will enjoy our chosen art through our performance."

Another traditional art, lacquer ware, has a 300-year history in the prefecture. Hasegawa Morikuni is promoting the World Cup through his craft. His idea was to decorate lacquered trays with a soccer ball design. The "balls" on his trays have a 3-D effect, and have enjoyed excellent coverage in the press.

Hokkaido is a large island in Japan's far north. The most important city, Sapporo, hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics. But it has never held a major summer sports event, so excitement is growing during the countdown to the World Cup.

The excitement is evident at the newly constructed Sapporo Dome. The stadium has the world's first "hovering soccer stage," designed to keep the natural-grass soccer field in top condition. Most of the time, the space inside the stadium is used for baseball games and various events, and the soccer field lies just outside the stadium to let the grass grow well. When a soccer game is planned, the outdoor field is lifted up by air pressure and slides into the domed stadium, in a remarkable feat of engineering. Spectator seats can also be moved to suit the event.

Okada Shigemi of Kawasaki Heavy Industries was in charge of the design and development of the mobile field. "It took us seven years to complete it. The "stage" weighs about 8,300 tons--the equivalent of 30 jumbo jets--and we needed a mechanism capable of making this huge field hover on air. No other place in the world has such a system, which explains why it took so long to develop, and why we went through so much trial and error. We needed three years of research just to develop a system that didn't leak air and that could properly control the air pressure."

Sapporo Dome proved its superior potential during the 2001 Kirin Cup.