J-Dream, football teams made up of Japanese people, was formed in January, 2001 because I played football all the way through university and first came to The Netherlands in 1998 to study football, due to the strong wishes of Japanese people residing in the Netherlands and with the support of the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands at the time and the Japanese School of Amsterdam. As there is very little opportunity in the Dutch lifestyle for children to exercise and therefore there is a decline in physical strength levels that are normally essential to children, engendering a lack of concentration, etc. and causing serious problems in children’s futures, the aim of these teams is to make improvements in these areas through football which could otherwise be called the national sport of the Netherlands. Furthermore, the teams also put effort into international exchange through the sport of football which is loved throughout the world.
Here in the Netherlands there are many great local football teams that own a number of natural grass pitches but because of the differences in language and environment, it is a reality that there are many children who cannot participate even if they want to. Therefore, these teams would, first of all, like to give children a firm level of self-confidence in their football so that they can then, by all means, try out for a Dutch team.

Within the limited timeframe of once a week, we try to relieve as much as possible the children’s lack of exercise focusing on training in the format of mini-games that place importance on the amount of exercise and running around at full tilt or training during which the children can thoroughly enjoy themselves on a large grass pitch. Training sessions take place on all-weather man-made turf pitches and natural grass pitches which are, for the Japanese, very rare and therefore a precious experience. We divide the children into 2 teams, one mainly consisting of younger elementary school children and the other of older elementary school and junior high school children and we strive to practice rigorously.
In June, 2003, with the cooperation of RKAVIC, a local team whose ground we use for training, we made great progress in that our application to the Royal Netherlands Football Association was approved and we were able to subscribe to the association sports insurance which is essential in order to be able to play football in the Netherlands. Thanks to this, it became officially possible for us to play interleague games against Dutch teams and since 2004 each team has played around 6 international friendly matches each year.
In 2004 we started weekday training (once a week) for elementary school children and in 2007 we formed a team for kindergarten children and started training (in a gymnasium) and in the same year we also started weekday training for a parent’s team (U-50).
In addition, as events in order for people to increase the value of the experience of living in a foreign country such as the Netherlands, in 2003 we arranged a visit and coaching from the former Dutch national squad and Jubilo Iwata player, Gerald Vanenburg (who was the PSV youth coach at the time), we invited coaches from the Royal Netherlands Football Association and organized football clinics for the children. In 2008, we held a coaching course (with certificates) with the theme of “What is Football?” for the parent’s team.
Over and above this, since 2007 we are holding a football tournament “J-Dream Cup” for Japanese companies in the Netherlands every year and in 2008 and 2009 our kids team participated in a Dutch professional tournament and an international tournament in Denmark as the representative team for Japan. Since 2015 our kids teams are participating every year in a tournament “Euro J Jr. Cup” for the Japanese team who is activating in Europe.
Also planned and managed by the East Japan great earthquake disaster recovery support event "Nederland helpt Japan" (Ajax vs. Shimizu S-Pulse), organized by Charity Concert by Tempei Nakamura in 2012. And organised by Charity Concert by Tempei Nakamura and Ms. Haruka Nagao as a reconstruction support event for the Kumamoto earthquake in 2017. We are focusing on charity activities as well.