For Japan's ageing soccer players, 80 is the new 50

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Mutsuhiko Nomura's soccer career has spanned 18 World Cups, or 70 years, to be exact.

Now the silver-maned former Japanese national team player is a member of the brand new over-80 division of Tokyo's"Soccer For Life" league, which played its first match this month.

That has brought societal changes, too: about a fifth of those older than 70 are employed, and the government encourages pensioners to start collecting later, by holding out the promise of larger deferred payments."I think the formation of the 0-80 division is a reflection of what we're seeing in Japanese society, where the elderly demographic can be active like this," said Yutaka Ito, the secretary general of the SFL league.

He credits the sport with motivating him to quit smoking and helping to speed his recovery after treatment for spinal stenosis. After the game, Nomura and his teammates toasted their prowess with cans of beer, in a ritual familiar to many younger players.

 

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