 There are 125,000 Japanese rugby players, 3,631 official rugby clubs, and the Japan national team is ranked 7th in the world.Before the arrival of rugby, Japan was home to a game known as "kemari" (), which in some ways was a parallel development to association football, and to a lesser extent rugby football.It is said that "kemari" was introduced to Japan from China in about 600 AD, during the Asuka period, and was based upon the Chinese sport of cuju.