Jun Endo almost quit football after the disaster that struck her region of Fukushima in 2011, until Japan won the Women’s World Cup a few months later, a feat that the player dreams of achieving in turn. With a goal and two assists, the 23-year-old attacking midfielder shines at the World Cup, within an uninhibited team that has won its three group matches.
The Japanese, crowned with a benchmark success against Spain (4-0), approach their round of 16 against Norway as favorites on Saturday in Wellington (08:00 GMT). The stadium is only a few meters from the Pacific Ocean, which bathes the peaceful New Zealand city. For Endo, the Pacific Ocean remains associated with a disaster of which she has “only bad memories”: the triple disaster earthquake-tsunami-nuclear accident of March 11, 2011, which left nearly 18,500 dead or missing.
She grew up about a hundred kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant (northeast) which, invaded by the waves, released large quantities of radioactive substances into the environment. Tens of thousands of people have been relocated, but not his family, who lived inland outside the evacuation zone. Restrictive health measures limited the outdoor activities of Jun Endo, who was ten years old at the time of the tsunami, for months. “I couldn’t play football because of the consequences of the disaster, but when I was thinking of quitting, Japan won the World Cup,” she said in an interview with AFP, conducted before the Global.
She used the time spent in gyms to develop her technique. “People were mean to us when we moved around,” she recalls, bearing in mind the discrimination linked to coming from Fukushima, synonymous with one of humanity’s worst nuclear disasters. The bright spot came from the soccer fields. In the summer of 2011, Japan defied the odds by winning its first, and only, World Cup in Germany.
The “Nadeshiko Japan”, the first Asian selection to win a World Cup, women and men alike, had raised the morale of the nation. This coronation marked a “turning point” in the life of Jun Endo, who watched the final against the United States (2-2 ap, 3-1 pens), in the middle of the night, with his parents and his three brothers and sisters. “I felt like football was no longer fun, so seeing players doing what I wanted to do, which was winning the World Cup, had a very positive impact on me.” , she assured. “I saw that, and it made me really want to be in that position too, one day,” she continued, and “it gave me strength.”
At only 19 years old, Endo played in the 2019 World Cup in France, where Japan stopped in the round of 16, against the Netherlands (2-1). Since its title, the selection has struggled to follow the progress of a competition that has grown, as women’s football has become more professional in the United States or in Europe. In Oceania for the World Cup, within a collective of outsiders, she hopes to inspire new generations, as her glorious predecessors did. “More children will want to become soccer players. It’s important to win the title,” she said.
Like Endo, the women’s team has roots in Fukushima prefecture, where the national training center is located. The midfielder of Angel City, a Los Angeles-based club, has no intention of hiding her origins: “I only have bad memories of the disaster, but it’s because it happened that I continued to play. I try to take it as something positive,” she said.
