'Hide' breaks rigid Japanese mould

It says a lot for the impact of soccer culture on Japan that it can make a national hero out of an outsider like Hidetoshi Nakata.

A superbly calculating footballing brain, combined with precision-tool physical control, the icily glamorous Nakata is not only the acknowledged heart and soul of Japan's World Cup soccer squad but a new kind of role model for a foundering nation: someone who succeeds by being different.

If World Cup Korea/Japan 2002 is as successful for him as the fans pray, expect major advances in the subtle social revolution his dyed-hair persona - omnipresent on TV and the billboards - represents among Japanese youth.

Nakata, 24, once planned to be an accountant but instead became a national star in 1997 when a goal against Iran ensured Japan's passage to the last World Cup finals.

Since then the "Hide" attitude has caught on big time, although the man himself has long since departed for the Italian league, where he plays for AC Parma.

Nakata, who rarely gives interviews, hates Japan's rigid hierarchies and is said to "break out in a rash" whenever he returns to his homeland.

Older Japanese may deplore Nakata's perceived boorish influence, but to many the good far outweighs the bad: on the field and off, he is nothing if not bold, experimenting, shaking things up, without fear of "loss of face".

This makes him the perfect role model for paralysed Japan's present needs.

nzherald.co.nz/fifaworldcup

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