But good luck with that because while Japan is quite adept at protecting one of their powerful scions, Takeda is also under investigation for bribery in France where prosecutors will not be nearly as accommodating.

Lost in the shuffle of Ichiro and the Olympic scandal this week was the official six-month countdown to the Rugby World Cup (RWC), which kicks off on September 20 when hosts Japan play Russia at Tokyo Stadium.

Much was made six months ago of the one-year countdown, with assorted dignitaries and VIPs all in tow to watch a half-hour video on the jumbo screens above the famous Shibuya Crossing.

But this week, the RWC folks were more than happy to sit back and let Ichiro and their Olympic brethren soak up all the ink and notoriety.

Other than a few press releases announcing the location of the team camps, things have been pretty quiet regarding the event and well they should.

Ticket sales have largely exceeded expectations and not only are the big games like England versus France, Ireland versus Japan and New Zealand versus South Africa basically sold out, but so are Georgia versus Uruguay and Italy versus Namibia.

The profile of the RWC should shift even more dramatically now as they basically have the big event sporting landscape to themselves for the next while.

Not only is the 2019 RWC a huge opportunity for rugby to discover Japan, it’s an even bigger opportunity for Japan to discover rugby and what the country will find fairly quickly is that rugby fans are not football fans.

“Football is a game for gentleman played by hooligans and rugby is a game for hooligans played by gentlemen,” said the then-chancellor of Cambridge University, Lord Arthur Tedder, over 50 years ago in a well-worn quote that largely holds true today.

In 2002 during the football World Cup, half the town of Sapporo was basically boarded up in fear for the big England versus Argentina match.

The vigilance was understandable considering the notoriety of the fan bases. “We were all told by the authorities to close down around that game due to anticipated hooligan violence,” said Mark Schumann, an Australian who is a long time local resident and owns popular sports bar TK6. “There were no incidences whatsoever though, everyone just lost out on a lot of business.”

Well, England are headed back to Sapporo and the good news is you can exhale Japan. When the English national team takes on Tonga at the Sapporo Dome on September 22, it should be a spirited and festive affair. “There have been no shutdown warnings for the Rugby World Cup and there likely won’t be,” said Schumann.

Rugby fans are renowned for their love of beer and one can safely presume even they will meet their match in Sapporo, the ancestral home of Japan’s frothing and delectable beer industry.

What the Japanese are going to find is that despite the fact that rugby fans can be loud and boisterous and proudly sport garish shirts and stupid hats, they have an inherent code of behaviour.

Not only do the players from opposing teams amicably drink with each other, so do their fans. It’s all in the rules of the game and you like rules Japan, so go look it up.

Speaking of rules, what rugby fans will quickly find about Japan is they are indeed slaves to them. One rule in particular bears noting and that is the secondary sale of tickets. Every single seat for the World Cup will have a name and ID number attached to it and can only be used by that specific person. Ticket scalpers, and secondary ticket buyers, are seemingly out of luck right now. While authorities seem to be relatively unyielding on this, hopefully they will take into account last minute shoppers. Or maybe not.

This is Japan where some traditions die hard. At any rate, the stage is all yours now rugby and Japan. Go grow your game – and go grow your country.