The Big Interview: Vyan Sampson on life in Japan
The former Arsenal defender made a promise to herself to go and play in Japan, and 18 months later shares her experienes and insights into the women's game there in an exclusive interview...
Before I barely finish the question of what took former Arsenal, West Ham United and Charlton Athletic defender Vyan Sampson why she made the decision to move and play in Japan, the 28-year-old has pre-empted me with an admittance of premeditation.
“I’ve always been really interested in Japanese culture,” says Sampson, who currently plays for the nation’s biggest women’s team, INAC Kobe, after initially joining JEF United Chiba in October 2023.
“I’m a massive anime fan,” she continues, “so I always had eyes on that part of the world. I’d been at Arsenal and had a few successes and leading up to the World Cup in 2023 I put myself in an environment where it wasn’t necessarily about the choice of being somewhere I was certain I’d be happy; it was more about finding somewhere I’d play as much as possible prior to the World Cup.
“I was selected, went over there to Australia and New Zealand, obviously we did really well, and after that I just wanted to do something for me, to hit my happy spot in a different place, and that was to explore that side of the world and go and live in Japan.
“At the World Cup, I spoke to my agent, and she started to reach out and we got a few bites back. It was just the right time for me. I’d achieved something I wanted to in terms of going to a World Cup, making it out of the group, then it was the time for me to go and enjoy something for me with no pressure.”
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After a year north of the border playing for Hearts in Scotland, Sampson moved to JEF United in Ichihara, a suburb on the outskirts of Tokyo, a few months after the World Cup, and clearly it can’t have taken long for the defender to make an impact, given INAC came calling just a few months later.
“Unfortunately for them at the time, I had a game that stopped them winning the league, so I did something right that day!” laughs Sampson.
With the formalities out of the way, there’s so much which not only intrigues me about Sampson’s decision to go to Japan, with more players coming the other way to the Women’s Super League than vice versa, but to also get an insight into Japanese football, a nation which has so often punched above its weight, culminating in a historic World Cup success in 2011.
They are still to this day producing world class talent which is being snapped up by some of the biggest clubs in the world, and in a league where English-speaking players remain at a premium, the opportunity to speak to Sampson is a rare chance to get an insight into what Japan is getting right.
The insight she is able to give goes beyond just sport, but into the fibre of Japanese culture and lifestyle.
“Japan is, as you know, very much an island,” she says. “They focus inwards rather than outwards, and with that like most Japanese culture, it’s about work. They have this diligence about them, especially when it comes to repetition.
“Us British people, we get bored with repetition, it seems quite monotonous for us, but from what I’ve seen, Japanese people tend to thrive in those environments, and that reflects on the pitch in the technical aspects of the game.”
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