She is one of three women among the 36 field referees selected by Fifa for the Mondial-2022 (November 20-December 18), alongside the French Stéphanie Frappart and the Rwandan Salima Mukansanga.
At 36, Yoshimi Yamashita says he has a feeling of “pride and responsibility” for the mission that awaits him in Qatar (where for the first time also three other women will be among the 69 assistant referees in the competition).
The first time she took the whistle was at the insistence of Makoto Bozono, a university friend who also became an international referee and who notably officiated with her during the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
This friend “half-dragged” her to referee a meeting “and that’s how I started,” she told AFP. “When you play a game, it makes you want to start over and do better.”
– Video games and puzzles –
Yoshimi Yamashita realized she could “maybe contribute to women’s football in Japan” when she started playing at the highest levels of refereeing.
Became an international referee in 2015, she officiated at the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Jordan in 2016, then two years later in Uruguay, before the Women’s World Cup in France in 2019 with her compatriots Makoto Bozono and Naomi Teshirogi .
Also in 2019, their trio formed the first all-female referee team for a men’s match in the AFC Cup, Asia’s second most prestigious club competition.
Then in April this year, Yoshimi Yamashita became the first female referee to officiate an Asian Champions League game.
Before signing her contract as a professional referee in Japan this summer – again an unprecedented event in the country for a woman – Yoshimi Yamashita was a part-time fitness instructor and rarely took days off to train.
“I’m not really an outdoors person,” she says, saying she enjoys relaxing in front of the television, playing video games or puzzles.
– “Not interested” in power –
The Tokyo native also became the first woman to officiate in Japan’s J-League last year and officiated a first-division game for the first time in September this year.
She feels indebted to other female referees who have already proven themselves in men’s football: if they hadn’t paved the way, she wouldn’t have landed her place in Qatar, she believes.
“I can’t destroy that trust. It’s a big responsibility but I’m happy to have it.”
Refereeing during the World Cup is “a dream” that she “never could have imagined”, she adds.
Yoshimi Yamashita also feels a sense of “responsibility” towards her country because she will be the only Japanese representative among the referees of the World Cup-2022, men and women alike. “I will prepare to make it a success to the best of my ability.”
“I will do everything possible to bring out the beauty of football. It is not power or control that interests me,” she also promised in an interview with Fifa a few months ago.
