The stakes are high for the first Asian host of the Rugby World Cup, both on and off the pitch
The Rugby World Cup megastore in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district is doing a brisk business in official merchandise. Wallabies and All Blacks T-shirts have sold out, a shop assistant says, glancing down at two sets of empty shelves. Spotting the flag emblazoned on a miniature rugby ball in the Guardian’s basket, she quickly adds: “The England shirts are selling really well, too.”
The warm and sustained blast of omotenashi hospitality directed at visiting teams and their supporters this week in Japan has almost made it possible to forget that much of the tournament’s success will depend on the hosts, who begin their campaign in the opening fixture against Russia on Friday in front of a TV audience organisers say could reach 40 million – just under a third of the country’s population.
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