Japan’s Yamashita cannot expect the same respect at the World Cup in Qatar as she does at home, where referee decisions are accepted without a murmur.
In Japan, Yoshimi Yamashita should hardly be unknown to any sports fan.
When asked if she’s nervous, Yoshimi Yamashita smiles. “Of course the pressure is great, I am aware that I have a great responsibility.” However, she does not believe that this will affect her performance. She is happy with her job and her goal is to bring out “the beauty of football” by doing things positively. After all, the 36-year-old is about to take the biggest step in her career when she takes part in the World Cup in Qatar from November 20th.
The tournament will not only be a historic event for Yoshimi Yamashita. The Japanese will be among the first women referees to referee matches at a men’s World Cup in Qatar, along with two other women. The other two are Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda and Stéphanie Frappart from France. There are also three assistant referees.
A progressive face for the controversial World Cup
These six women also lend a progressive face to the highly controversial finals in Qatar. In most countries of the world, football is still often denounced as a male and macho sport. This is also the case in the host country Qatar, which, in addition to various human rights violations, also discriminates against women in particular. In its annual gender gap report, the World Economic Forum ranks Qatar among the “worst-performing countries in the region”. Qatar ranks 143rd out of 146 countries in terms of political participation by women.
In football, the most popular sport in the world, the office of referee has a certain degree of political importance. Because while the referee makes sure that the rules are observed and interprets them according to his or her own judgment in controversial situations, he or she is under the constant observation of an often latently hostile audience and angry players. On the soccer field, the person with the whistle in his mouth is the ultimate authority. In this role, however, she has to assert herself anew in every game situation.
When a few women take up this position on the biggest stage in football – the World Cup – they should take a closer look and every wrong decision will be discussed all the more. Of the three referees who will be in the spotlight over the coming weeks, Yoshimi Yamashita stands out. Born in Tokyo, she comes from a country where it is particularly surprising when a woman becomes an international pioneer in any social sphere.
In the Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum, Japan consistently does poorly. The country ranked 116th out of 146 in 2022. While women are on average just as well educated as men, they remain disadvantaged, especially in the labor market and in politics. Traditionally, women are also excluded from several professions, for example because they are considered unclean due to menstrual bleeding. This applies to the profession of sushi chef.
Sexist Incidents in Japanese Sports
Discrimination also exists in sport. In millennia-old sumo, women are banned from the ring. In the run-up to the Olympic Games in Tokyo last summer, Yoshiro Mori, then chairman of the organizing committee, made sexist comments. When asked whether there shouldn’t be more gender equality at the level of officials, Mori said women talked so much and it slowed things down. Mori had to resign. But his spell was far from the only sexist incident in Japanese sport.
However, football is one of the more progressive sports in Japan. When the J-League established itself as the men’s professional league in the 1990s, football was promoted as a women- and family-friendly alternative to male-dominated baseball. Today, there are a striking number of women in the stands of Japanese stadiums. Girls’ and women’s football has never been considered unfeminine in Japan. There is now also a professional league for women. Japan won the title at the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany.
Even so, it took a long time in the East Asian country before Yoshimi Yamashita, the first female referee, was allowed to hand out yellow and red cards not only in women’s but also in men’s football. Yamashita earned her class one license in 2012, three years later she was registered with the World Federation for International Games. Yamashita is considered a rather calm, balanced official.
Her rise in Japanese football can be interpreted in a similar way. As a particularly loud advocate for more women’s participation in men’s football, which is more prominent in the media, she did not initially attract attention. Yamashita excelled with unassuming performances, managing to referee games without having to deal a lot of cards. When she was first used in the J-League last year, she was widely discussed. Once they raved about their looks, once their game management was praised. She should hardly be unknown to a sports fan in Japan today.
The World Cup will be a kind of baptism of fire
Yamashita has been on gratifying territory so far, because in her home country, accepting refereeing decisions without grumbling is considered good manners across all sports. The referees are almost never accused of bias, and they are rarely booed or insulted by the audience. Internationally, Yamashita has so far refereed the men’s Asian Champions League, the 2019 Women’s World Cup and the 2021 Olympic Games. Here, too, the relationship with the referee is still rather cooperative.
A men’s World Cup, where national prestige and all sorts of dreams beyond football are at stake for players and fans alike, will be a kind of baptism of fire for Yoshimi Yamashita. Regarding the difficult tasks of a referee, she recently said: “I try to be something between a robot and a human.” Because both qualities are needed. “I want to apply the rules like a machine. But sometimes things are not black and white. And then I have to be able to communicate my decisions as humanly as possible.”
When players verbally attack the referee, Yamashita even understands: “They use all their strength in the game and want to win. As a referee, I have to understand that.” Yoshimi Yamashita should be asked for a lot of empathy in Qatar. In the midst of the expected whistles and insults from the audience, the robot in her will probably also play a decisive role.