Kaze is a 19-year-old student in Tokyo, who uses his dual nationality to pioneer a space for Japanese Sunderland fans across the island.
Over 9,000km away from the city of Sunderland, Japanese-American Kaze has found connection, self-expression and a sense of relation when supporting the Black Cats from the comfort of his community in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Kaze has been a Sunderland fan since childhood, thanks to his father’s fandom and his love of old football magazines.
Through both digital and physical spaces, Kaze has found that finding connections between Japanese and English fan communities have been his most cherished moments.
Through his fan community, he has been determined to forge more connections between the UK and Asia, with the aim of making the game more inclusive and accessible.
“It’s important to communicate with people who come from completely different backgrounds, as it broadens our view of culture and enables acceptance of others and their communities.”
Founder of his own Sunderland-dedicated fan account, Kaze holds live pre-match analysis and provides match commentary and manager interviews in Japanese, giving historical and cultural context to his Japanese listeners.
However, Kaze doesn’t just include his local Japanese fan group, he extends invitations to in-person watch parties for travelling English-speaking Sunderland fans looking to watch the game while abroad.
When English fans began joining Kaze and his fan group, the Japanese supporters were taught local English chants and cultural history, like Sunderland’s history of boxing.
To Kaze, these cultural exchanges through football allow everyone to forget about the divisions present in today’s world and unite over a shared love of the game.
“There are people from each and every one of these communities, even if they seem distant from the community we usually belong to. And I think this process [of communicating with people from other cultures] broadens the view of most people and enables acceptance of other people in other communities and cultures since they know there are actual people, actual decent people who belong to each community and they mean little harm to yours.”
Together, Kaze and his community are unified through the ups and downs of supporting their club that they see as a home away from home. And while Japanese culture can at times demand politeness and modesty, Kaze explains, football matches allow him to discover a different side of his identity alongside his peers.
As Sunderland settle back into the Premier League, Kaze finds comfort knowing he has fellow fans all around the world to share this new era, motivating him to keep on his pursuit of looking beyond borders to create experiences with supporters in other countries far and wide.
*created in collaboration with football case study.