Japan national football team
Japan is the first team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América, having been invited in both 1999 and 2011. However, Japan declined their invitation on 16 May 2011, after events related to the difficulty of releasing some Japanese players from European teams to play as replacements. On 17 May 2011, CONMEBOL invited Costa Rica to replace Japan in the competition; the Costa Rican Football Federation accepted their invitation later that day.
Tetsuro Kiyooka
Kiyooka firmly believed that the Japan national football team needed players who had experiences playing for clubs in European leagues to develop the national team. In 2006, he passed the FIFA Players' Agent exam and registered with The Football Association (England), the Royal Dutch Football Association (Netherlands) and the Japan Football Association as an official agent. After that, he represented top Japanese players such as Keisuke Honda, Maya Yoshida and led them to the football clubs in European leagues.