‘Under the age of seven you have 370,000 children in Scotland,’ says Tom Byer, the cultural architect of Japan’s rise to the top 20 of world football. “And no one is talking to those families about football, they’re just running on trial and error. If the kids stumble upon football, fine...”

Born in New York, Byer is a force of nature. He is 64 and for the last 40 years he has lived in Tokyo, ingraining himself in Japan’s pop culture. His Football Starts At Home programme preaches the idea that parents should teach their children to master a ball as soon as they can walk. He rolled out tips and tutorials on how it is done on Japan’s No.1 children’s television show for 14 years.

From the success of the J-League to the co-hosting of the 2002 World Cup and the Japanese influx at Celtic ,

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