Former Japan national team forward Yoichiro Kashiya opened up about his career-long rivalries on TBS’s “Life’s Best Restaurant.” Kashiya, who signed with Cerezo Osaka in 2006 as the youngest pro in club history and was dubbed a “genius,” revealed that fellow draftee Shinji Kagawa was “the biggest wall” he faced. He also looked back on how Kagawa, an unknown at the time he joined the club, began to break out in his second year. The thread sparked by this story was full of nostalgia for Kagawa’s brilliance during his Dortmund days, but the conversation soon expanded to cover how current players like Takefusa Kubo and Ryunosuke Sato are being used, as well as opinions on Keisuke Honda’s work as a pundit—turning into a cross-generational debate over Japan’s greatest attackers.
Former Japan national team forward Yoichiro Kashiya appeared on TBS’s “Life’s Best Restaurant” (Saturdays, 11:30 PM), which aired on the 19th. During the show, he opened up about his feelings toward a rival.
Kashiya signed a professional contract with Cerezo Osaka in 2006, while still a first-year high schooler, becoming the youngest pro in club history and earning the “genius” label. When host Koji Kato brought up, “Kagawa (Shinji) was there at the time, right?”, Kashiya replied, “That’s right. He was honestly the biggest wall I faced,” referring to Kagawa, who joined the club in the same year and was one year older.
“I didn’t even know the name Shinji Kagawa, and I had no idea he’d go pro,” Kashiya said. He recalled that in their first year, neither of them could break into the first team and they “trained together in what you’d call the reserve squad,” but by year two, “Shinji Kagawa started getting noticed by the world. He was just that good.”
Source: hochi.news / Original article here
2AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:24
Re: #1
Neither Ryunosuke Sato nor Takefusa Kubo played in Valencia vs. Real Sociedad… Kubo's started on the bench for 4 straight matches now, clearly slipping down the pecking order
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/c2193d5c88b0161a21cdfc610dfe5c9f55d7e400
3AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:26
The way Kagawa could blow past a defender on his first touch after receiving a pass — I'd never seen that from any Japan international before or since. Blew me away.
4AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:31
He was razor-sharp in his Dortmund days before the Man U move.
That thing where only one guy looks like he's moving at 1.5x speed — that's what real world-class looks like.
26AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:06
Re: #4
Same feeling here.
Really felt it in that friendly against Korea they played in Sapporo too.
5AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:32
If Kashiya had the stamina for it, he probably could've stepped up after his stint in the Swiss league.
22AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:59
Re: #5
Stamina's just a convenient excuse he tells himself — sure, he had the technique on the ball,
but his off-the-ball movement was never good,
and in the end he finished his career as just a decent J.League player.
6AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:34
If a guy's that insanely good, doesn't it work the other way too — like, 'ah, he'll be off overseas soon anyway'?
10AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:45
Re: #6
2006 wasn't really an era where guys went overseas that fast.
7AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:35
There was a time I thought Kashiya might make it as big as Kagawa.
11AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:47
Bias aside, Kagawa looked way more impressive to me than Kubo.
24AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:04
Kaki-P's a great talker (Kashiya's nickname).
Thought he was just a soccer-brained airhead.
28AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:14
Re: #24
He was good at soccer, but his talking skills were even better.
32AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:18
First it was hyping up Uchida, now it's hyping up Kashiya?
41AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:27
Re: #32
Uchida's about to head back into the game, so Kashiya's probably filling in as his replacement.
56AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:43
Re: #41
Yeah, he went into women's soccer.
35AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:19
Wasn't Kashiya actually the one who got called a 'genius' first?
37AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:22
Re: #35
Kashiya got attention for scoring incredible goals at international youth tournaments.
I didn't even know who Kagawa was until he broke out in J2.
36AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:21
A lot of soccer players aren't exactly sharp, so I'd imagine their second careers are tough.
39AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:25
Re: #36
There aren't many matches in soccer.
That means there aren't just few coaching spots — there are also few 'industry insider' spots, like TV commentator or pundit roles.
I've got a hunch the J.League keeps expanding partly because it needs to create jobs for guys after they retire.
42AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:27
Re: #36
Things University of Tokyo students do as hobbies:
Soccer >>> pig sugoroku (a silly dice-and-board party game — the joke being even elite students rate real soccer far above some trivial parlor game)
45AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:29
Kashiya used to do a toto (the JFA's official football pools) prediction show every matchweek back during the '100 Year Vision' era,
and it really came through that he genuinely loved soccer and watched a ton of it.
47AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:32
Re: #45
His YouTube sit-down with Kiyotake is a great watch — he's clearly done his homework, and he's amazing at putting strengths and weaknesses into words.
57AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:48
Kagawa's still got the best résumé of any Japanese player, hands down.
Won back-to-back Bundesliga titles in Germany, beating out Bayern — and he was a key player on the team, not a bench guy.
No Japanese player has topped that record yet.
58AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:52
Re: #57
He was clearly outplaying Lewandowski back then, no question.
64AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:59
Re: #57
Actually the results were better when Kagawa was injured —
it didn't matter whether Kagawa was even on the pitch.
78AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:13
Re: #57
He won the Premier League too, on top of that.
Re: #58
Right, and back then Lewandowski was playing behind him at attacking mid, as Kagawa's backup.
62AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:54
A player whose name is somehow famous even though I've never once seen him actually play.
66AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:03
Re: #62
Sounds like a Kubo who doesn't dribble.
65AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:01
Kagawa's real achievement was proving that late runs from the number 10 role could be one of the few weapons a Japanese player can reliably have — sure, he lacked the physicality and top speed for the real duels,
but he held onto agility as an edge.
Nakata's path of trying to muscle through in Europe didn't really translate, but Kagawa showed a 'Kagawa-type' player could make it —
and a whole line of successors followed that model.
67AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:04
Re: #65
Isn't Kaisedo Sano more the Nakata type, though?
72AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:08
Kagawa peaked way too early.
20 to 23 was his prime, and it was all downhill after that.
75AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:10
Re: #72
I'd say 21-22 was really his absolute peak.
Classic early-bloomer type, like those old-school Brazilian players — brilliant young, then basically washed up by his mid-20s.
74AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:09
Re: #64
European leagues aren't that forgiving — if that were really true, he wouldn't have gotten regular playing time at all.
77AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:12
Re: #74
Yeah, Dortmund was the only club that ever really played him.
79AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:15
Hard to believe it's already been 12 years since Kashiya was a nationwide sports sensation for that one half-year stretch.
Background and key points of this discussion
Yoichiro Kashiya signed a professional contract with Cerezo Osaka in 2006 while still in high school, becoming the youngest player in club history and earning the nickname “genius.” Shinji Kagawa, who joined the club the same year, went on to break out in J2 before moving to Borussia Dortmund in 2010, where he became a key player in back-to-back Bundesliga title wins — one of the most decorated résumés of any Japanese player. Kashiya also played abroad, in Italy and Switzerland, but never established himself in Europe to the same degree as Kagawa. The thread was mostly filled with nostalgia for Kagawa at his peak, but the conversation gradually broadened to include how current players like Takefusa Kubo and Ryunosuke Sato are being used, as well as opinions on Keisuke Honda’s work as a pundit — turning into a wider, cross-generational comparison of Japanese attackers. One notable point of surprise: Kagawa and Lewandowski were teammates at Dortmund at the same time, with Kagawa as the starter and Lewandowski coming off the bench behind him — a stark contrast to how the two are regarded today.
*This article is an excerpt and summary based on the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Speed+) thread “[Soccer] The player Yoichiro Kashiya, once dubbed a “genius,” calls his “biggest wall” — the talent he was jealous of and “didn’t even want to talk about”.”
