Japanese League
　The Japanese Soccer League completed the first half of the 1974 season on June 2. Mitsubishi F.C. of Tokyo, the winner of the league and cup double last year, has suffered from the absence of Sugiyama who retired last January. Towa Fudosan of Utsunomiya are expected to be favorites for the second half which will start on Oct. 13, since three imported Brazilian players will be lining up with them. The Leage positions after the first half of 1974 season are as follows:

　The World Cup! What is it to the Japanese ?
　What significance does the World Cup have for the Japanese? We have no team to support in the final tournament of the World Cup in Germany as Japan was knocked out at all earlier stage of the preliminary rounds and Australia occupies the only berth for the Asian and the Oceanian group.
　However some 500 Japanese footballers and supporters will visit West Germany during the World Cup matches. The Japanese national team will stay there on its way to play some friendly games in Rumania. YOMIURI F.C. of Tokyo will send its second division team for training to a sports center near Cologne. Their object is obviously to see and learn the highest techniques and tactics that will be demonstrated in the World Cup competition. Some coaches of Japanese League clubs will also visit the tournament sites with the same object.
　More than 400 Japanese spectators will travel to West Germany to see the games. Although they have no team to support, they can still enjoy the keen and thrilling atmosphere at the games, something rarely experienced at stadiums in Japan.
　Customers at travel agencies in Tokyo had to draw lots for tickets to the matches because the agencies were not able to get enough tickets. Those who drew blanks were forced to give up their trips.
　 About 20 newspaper and magazine journalists from Japan will cover the World Cup games. One of the journalists explained his object this way : "We must let our readers know what the World Cup really is. Most of our readers recognize the Olympic Games as the highest of all sporting events. But we believe that the World Cup will even more interesting for our readers."
　Originally, no television company intended to cover the World Cup because the broad-casting fee required by the West German organization was too big for any company in Japan to accept.
　On learning of this, a boy appealed in the reader's column of "Soccer Magazine" for a "post-card campaign" requesting television transmission of the World Cup. Many readers supported the appeal and sent post-cards to television companies. One company finally acceeded to the request. Live T.V. transmission from Munich to Tokyo by satellite is planned for the final match on July 8. Other matches will be broadcast by video-tape after the World Cup is over. A one-hour program of World Cup matches every Sunday is scheduled to run for about one year from the middle of July.

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