Japan have fallen behind the world's leading sides since winning the World Cup and did not progress past the last 16 in France four years ago. She has become a key figure for her country, after appearing in three of Japan's four games at the 2019 World Cup as the squad's youngest player. "I had felt the fun going out of football, so to see players doing what I wanted to do - winning the World Cup - it had a really positive impact on me," she said.Įndo now plays her club football for Angel City FC in the United States, having left Japan's domestic league at the end of 2021. "Then there were people who didn't want to eat or buy things that were grown in Fukushima and had the name Fukushima on them."Ī moment of respite came when Japan upset the odds to win the Women's World Cup in Germany that summer, beating the United States in the final to become national heroes.Įndo recalls getting up in the middle of the night to watch the match with her parents and three siblings, describing it as "a turning point" in her life. "People would say nasty things to us when we were away on football tours," she said. Rare visits to other parts of Japan to play games brought relief but also pain - she and her team-mates faced discrimination from opposing players who treated them like they were radioactive. "My technique developed a lot and in terms of what came out of it, it was really good."Įndo says it was difficult to deal with the loss of freedom and she thought about giving up football. "I liked dribbling before then but I began to like it even more during that time," she said. "I watched that and I strongly felt that I wanted to be standing in that position one day too."Įndo grew up about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Fukushima's Daiichi nuclear plant and was 10 years old when the deadly tsunami overwhelmed its cooling systems, triggering a meltdown.Ībout 165,000 people fled their homes in the area, either voluntarily or under evacuation orders, in the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.Įndo's family lived outside the evacuation zone and stayed put, but radiation regulations at her school meant outdoor play was strictly limited for months after the disaster.Įndo had to share the same small indoor hall with the other kids but she says it had "a good impact" on her control of a football. "I couldn't play football because of the effects of the disaster, but just when I was thinking of quitting, Japan won the World Cup," the 23-year-old told AFP. Japan's Women's World Cup win that year inspired her to keep going and now the forward is carrying her country's hopes into this month's tournament in Australia and New Zealand. Jun Endo wasn't allowed to play football outside after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster because of radiation fears, so she honed her dribbling skills in a cramped indoor hall instead.
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