Soccer, or football, is a popular sport in Japan and the country has a professional soccer league with 18 teams.

Nagoya is Japan's fourth-largest city and a major industrial center, with a population of over 9 million people in the greater Nagoya area.

During the Edo period, which lasted from the 17th to the mid-19th century, Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate and experienced a period of peace and stability.