{"id":833384,"date":"2026-07-30T12:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833384\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T12:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:17:09","slug":"why-immigration-politics-in-japan-is-leaving-its-rugby-world-cup-stars-in-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833384\/","title":{"rendered":"Why immigration politics in Japan is leaving its Rugby World Cup stars in limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Timothy Lafaele is among the rugby players who have made their lives and playing careers in Japan, and hold Japanese passports even though they were born outside the country.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In Lafaele\u2019s case, he has played 28 times for Japan\u2019s national team, including as part of a monumental victory over Ireland in the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which Japan hosted.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He was a star back then as Japan\u2019s rugby prowess shocked many.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But under new rules proposed by local rugby officials that are set to go into effect when the Japan Rugby League One season opens in December, Lafaele and the others will be classed as foreigners, clouding their future in Japan.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This limits their playing opportunities on domestic teams where Japan-born players will get preference.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Seiji Makino, a lawyer who is representing 24 players in a suit pending before several Japanese courts, said he was hopeful changes could be made before the season opened \u2013 through the courts or through negotiations with rugby officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Timothy Lafaele is among the rugby players who have made their lives and playing careers in Japan, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[45353,64,63,405301,26779,941,174301,54395,405302,405304,405303,760,15131,85,11804],"class_list":["post-833384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-american-samoa","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-foreign-correspondents-club-of-japan","tag-ireland","tag-japan","tag-japan-rugby-league-one","tag-japanese","tag-japanese-prime-minister-sanae-takaichi","tag-lafaele","tag-makino","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-world-cup","tag-sports","tag-tokyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}