1968 Japan v Arsenal

Japan v Arsenal - 1968

Arsenal travelled to Japan in May 1968 to play three games against the Japan National Team. Arsenal were the first English professional club to tour Japan and the tour was arranged as part of a push to help promote football in Japan and also to prepare the Japanese National Team for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, where Japan eventually went on to claim the bronze medal. In the first game on May 23 in Tokyo’s Kokuritsu Stadium in front of 58,000 supporters two goals from Bobby Gould and a goal from Terry Neill secured a 3-1 win for Arsenal. In the second game in Fukuoka on May 26 in front of 13,000 supporters a single headed goal from substitute David Simmons was enough to secure a 1-0 win for Arsenal. In the final game in Tokyo on May 29 in front of 68,000 supporters two goals from Frank McLintock and a goal each from David Simmons and David Jenkins gave Arsenal a comfortable 4-0 victory.

The official programme, which covers all three games has 16 x B5 pages and is all in Japanese. The programme includes details of the Japan and Arsenal squads together with small pen-picture photos of each of the players. It has a 4-page article on Arsenal and a half page article giving results of previous British teams games in Japan - Islington Corinthians (1938), Stirling Albion (1966) and Middlesex Wanderers (1967). Finally the programme has two pages where the results of the three games and team line-ups etc can be entered.

The medal I have in my collection for this game is really rare and interesting and I suspect might possibly have been given to one of the players or officials?