The 20-year-old football player at Nihon University (Nichidai), looked like he might be on the verge of tears as he bowed contritely at the news conference. Taisuke Miyagawa had called the news conference to issue a public apology for an intentionally dangerous tackle that had sent an opposing quarterback to the hospital.
Although the fan base for American-style football is small in Japan, this recent incident ignited heated discussion throughout the country. At issue was the use of a coach’s authority or power (powa) to take advantage of underlings’ weaker position, to force them to do things against their will (hara or harassment).
One player reported that at a practice game, the coach announced, “Because we don’t know if Miyagawa has motivation or not, we are not going to give him a chance to play in games. He can quit.” Later the coach suggested to Miyagawa that he would be able to play in the game the next day if he would seriously injure the opposing team’s quarterback.
After repeatedly being accused in front of the rest of the team of being too “weak” to play, on the day of the game Miyagawa’s coach ordered him to either physically “destroy” the opposing player or be removed from the game, according to Miyagawa and anonymous players at Nichidai.
Miyagawa complied with a violent hit from behind to the defenseless quarterback, after the first play of the game. The quarterback sustained injuries that are expected to take at least three weeks to recover from. The video went viral and shocked a nation devoted to fair play in sports.
Miyagawa, who had started to play American football in high school, began losing interest in the aggressive contact sport once he entered Nichidai. After his unprincipled action, he immediately regretted following orders and went into a tent on the sideline and cried. His coach continued to harass him, “You are too naïve. You felt bad for the opponent, didn’t you?” the coach chastised.
Miyazawa decided to take steps to make amends. He traveled to the quarterback’s home in Kansai to apologize to him and his family and to hold a public new conference.
“I wasn’t strong enough to say no,” he said. “Though I was ordered by the coaches, I could have refused but went ahead anyway and acted. It was weakness on my part,” he said in the news conference, holding a deep bow for 15 seconds. “It was I that did what I did,” Miyagawa remarked. “I’m not in a position to say things about our manager and coaching staff. But I thought I needed to speak.”
This has set off another round of nationwide examination of deep-rooted hierarchical dynamics, adding to previous introspection after the bullying and harassment that women have faced from men in the office has come to light, and a recording of a female lawmaker verbally and physically abusing her secretary was made public…
