Kurashiki and Africa. Despite being regions with vastly different languages, cultures, and ways of life, there is a professional soccer player who was born and raised in Kurashiki and continues to take on challenges in Africa.
Morishita Jindo was born and raised in Kurashiki City and is a soccer player who has signed professional contracts in African leagues, including those in Zambia and Ghana.
He has made a name for himself as the first Japanese soccer player in Ghana, and is also popular with local people.
Here we introduce the activities of Morishita, who says, “I want to become someone Kurashiki can be proud of.”
The information presented was current when this article was published in May 2024. Please note that it may differ from current information.
About Morishita Jindo
Morishita Jindo is a player active in professional soccer leagues in Africa. (28 years old as of April 2024)
Born in Kurashiki City in 1995, he encountered soccer while living in the Netherlands as a child. After returning to Japan, he played for JFE Kurashiki FC (now Pinnacle Kurashiki FC), Hajas Football Academy, and the soccer team at Okayama Prefectural Kurashiki Seiryo High School.
He had a strong passion for soccer from an early age, and during high school even took a year off to pursue soccer studies in Indonesia.
After graduating from high school, he went on to Tsukuba University, a powerhouse in soccer, and made his professional debut in Zambia, Africa, while still a student. He later transferred to Ghana, where he helped energize the league for two years as Ghana’s first Japanese player. His activities have been covered by many media outlets both in Japan and abroad.
Morishita’s work has not been limited to his activities as a soccer player; he has also undertaken many initiatives that contribute to international aid.
- Ghana’s “tuk-tuk business,” which created jobs for local supporters
- “Soccer coaching and instruction in life skills, gender issues, and career development” at a soccer academy (NGO) in Ghana
- “Attracting Japanese corporate sponsors” to rescue clubs facing financial difficulties
- “Providing internships” that connect Japanese companies with talented African students
- Operating the online English conversation service “EvolvEng”
He has also worked to connect Japan and Africa, and Kurashiki and Africa, by attracting companies from his hometown of Kurashiki to sponsor a team in Ghana and taking students from his alma mater, Okayama Prefectural Kurashiki Seiryo High School, to Ghana.
As of April 2024, he is temporarily back in Japan for rehabilitation following an injury, but says he will continue taking on soccer challenges in Africa.
Let’s look back at the story of Morishita, who has devoted his life to soccer, and how he got to where he is today.
His encounter with soccer
Let’s look back at his first encounter with soccer.
Childhood in the Netherlands
Morishita’s introduction to soccer came during his childhood in the Netherlands.
At age five, he left his hometown of Kurashiki when his father was transferred and moved to the Netherlands, where he began attending an international school.
At the time, Japanese player Ono Shinji was playing professionally in the Netherlands.
Morishita admired Ono, who captivated supporters with his technique despite being surrounded by physically imposing Dutch players. Ono’s success inspired Morishita to start playing soccer.
At first, he struggled to communicate in English after moving there, but he increasingly had opportunities to connect with friends through soccer without using words. He improved at soccer even faster than he did at English, becoming someone even older students looked up to.
He played soccer not only at school but also as a member of a club team. His days in the Netherlands were filled with soccer.
The club team that helped him overcome bullying after returning to Japan
When Morishita was 11, he returned from the Netherlands to Kurashiki and transferred to a local elementary school.
There, he faced bullying. His classmates did not accept the English he had spoken for years, and he endured severe bullying.
The club team became his emotional support in those difficult circumstances.
The JFE Kurashiki FC (now Pinnacle Kurashiki FC), where Morishita played in Kurashiki, was one of the strongest clubs in Okayama Prefecture at the time. Although he found the demanding practices difficult, playing soccer with his club teammates gave him a place where he belonged.
While playing for JFE Kurashiki FC, Morishita won the prefectural tournament, and his vague dream of “becoming a professional soccer player” gradually became a realistic goal.
High school years building a track record in Indonesia
With his goal of becoming a professional soccer player now clear, Morishita joined Hajas, a strong club team, in junior high school and was selected for the prefectural team.
At age 14, on his mother’s advice, he learned about Tsukuba University, which had produced many professional soccer players.
He enrolled at Okayama Prefectural Kurashiki Seiryo High School to prepare for admission to Tsukuba University.
Struggling with the dilemma he faced on the soccer team
Morishita enrolled at Kurashiki Seiryo High School and joined the soccer team.
At the time, Kurashiki Seiryo High School’s soccer team had ranked among the top four in Okayama Prefecture, and Morishita had been participating in the team’s practices even before enrolling.
However, just as Morishita joined, the coach and players who had led the team to the top four left as the team changed over, and he could no longer practice as he had hoped. His former club teammates were thriving on other teams, and Morishita began to feel anxious.
Dissatisfied with an environment where he could not play to his full potential, he asked his father, who was working in Indonesia at the time, about the local soccer scene. He learned that soccer was very popular in Indonesia and enjoyed as a national sport, and began to feel a desire to take on a challenge in a new environment.
However, leaving Japan was a difficult choice, as it would affect his university entrance exam studies and mean missing his final tournament.
In the end, he was encouraged by the words of a mentor who had helped him with career counseling: “If you’re unsure, you should definitely go.” He decided to take on the challenge in Indonesia.
A new challenge in Indonesia
In Indonesia, he started by joining casual soccer games played by Japanese expatriates living there.
After participating for a while, he met a professional player active in Indonesia at a practice match. When the player learned that Morishita was not affiliated with a team, he introduced him to the coach of his own professional team. This enabled Morishita to train with the youth academy there.
Later, Morishita was scouted by the coach of a strong soccer team at Jakarta International School. He spent his days studying during the day and practicing with the select team after school.
He played in the final Southeast Asian soccer tournament of his stay, and Morishita’s team finished as runners-up. Morishita also ranked among the top three scorers and was named one of the tournament’s outstanding players. His performance was so impressive that he was even considered for the Indonesia select team.
“I worked hard at soccer and got results wherever I was given the opportunity, and that led to more and more encounters and connections. I think the experience of breaking new ground through soccer in an unfamiliar place later contributed to my success in Africa,” he recalls.
Balancing studies and soccer during exam preparation
He became an exam candidate soon after returning to Japan, but told his homeroom teacher of his strong resolve to “never give up soccer” and continued practicing without retiring from the soccer team until graduation.
However, on his coach’s advice, he focused on studying instead of soccer for just two months over the summer. Those two months were the period when he studied hardest in his life, and as a result, his deviation score rose by about 20 points and he began receiving A ratings on practice exams.
He had been focusing on studying for the academic exam for the School of Health and Physical Education, but his homeroom teacher suggested that he apply through the recommendation-based admissions process for the College of International Studies. He applied through the recommendation process, was accepted, and went on to Tsukuba University.
He chose the College of International Studies for its recommendation-based admissions process, but says that this choice later opened up the path that led him to take on the challenge of Africa.
University years
After entering Tsukuba University and joining its soccer club, Morishita made his professional debut in Zambia, Africa, while still a student.
Starting out on the sixth team
Tsukuba University’s soccer club was established in 1896 and is one of the oldest clubs in Japan. It has produced many soccer players, and top players from all over the country gather there.
As a result, the club has many members, divided by ability into teams from the first to the seventh. Only the top, first team received direct coaching from the head coach.
Those wishing to join first had to complete a two-month provisional membership period called the “Freshman Course.” During the course, they underwent long, grueling physical training and were thoroughly taught the club’s organizational culture, building a foundation of physical and mental strength.
New students who completed the Freshman Course were assigned to teams from the first to the seventh according to their level. Morishita was assigned to the sixth team. He saw the difference in ability between himself and the higher-ranked teams, but used his frustration as motivation to keep practicing, eventually rising to the second team.
However, he thought that if things continued as they were, he would not be able to become a professional, so he devised a strategy to turn pro.
One way to become a professional without receiving an offer is to take part in a test called a tryout. At a tryout, players participate in practices and matches, showcase their abilities, and aim to receive an offer from a professional team.
However, players of similar ability gathered at tryouts, so he needed to stand out even more.
Morishita began planning to train in a region with a high level of soccer and become a professional player in Japan after returning.
A fourth-year student who decided to take on the challenge of Africa
Not long after entering Tsukuba University, Morishita went through a period of uncertainty about whether to transfer from the College of International Studies to the School of Health and Physical Education.
When he consulted Coach Koido Masaaki about transferring, he was persuaded not to: “You’ll have more options in the future as someone in the international studies program who also has a broad knowledge of sports than as someone in the physical education program who can speak English.”
At the time, he was not entirely convinced, but later, he says the idea of taking on soccer in Africa emerged from conversations with friends he met in the College of International Studies.
While enrolled in the College of International Studies, Morishita was also a member of the international development research lab in the School of Health and Physical Education. Through an introduction from a professor in that lab, he got the chance to accompany a group to an international sports conference held in Zambia, Africa.
Wanting to build connections with people involved in soccer in Africa, Morishita asked the professor to let him join the one-week trip to Zambia. At the venue, he printed a QR code linking to footage of himself playing soccer on the back of his business cards and handed out several hundred of them.
As a result, he made connections with people associated with Zambia’s national team, and he ended up taking a tryout for a professional team in Zambia.
The idea of handing out business cards printed with a QR code came from casual conversations with his friends in the College of International Studies.
Making an impact in Africa beyond soccer
Morishita made his professional debut in Zambia and later played professionally in Ghana. His activities expanded beyond soccer to include international aid. Here we introduce his work from his professional debut in Africa to the present.
Soccer in Zambia, honed amid cultural differences
Just before graduation, Morishita took a leave of absence and went to Zambia as a ninth-cohort participant in “Tobitate! Study Abroad JAPAN,” a program run by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. After experiencing many culture shocks, he took part in tryouts for a local professional team and finally made his long-awaited professional debut.
During tryouts, he also experienced racial discrimination through soccer.
At the first professional team he tried out for, he was clearly told during the final selection round, “We can’t sign Asian players.”
“For the people there, not becoming a soccer player means they can’t support their families, so it’s a matter of life and death. Learning about the realities of life there made me think. But this is the professional world, so I felt I had no choice but to keep going, and took on the next tryout,” he says.
At first, he often felt stressed by life in a foreign country.
He struggled to communicate with his host family, and unfamiliar insect-eating customs caused him to lose as much as 10 kg. But Morishita gradually adapted to Zambian culture.
He came to believe that “Africa has its own way of getting into condition.”
Life in Zambia brought many culture shocks, but also gave him new perspectives. In addition to the backward-looking approach he had followed until then—“setting a goal and mapping out the steps to reach it”—he adopted a “cumulative approach: figuring out how to build on each moment as it comes.”
He says that even during his current rehabilitation, he can ask himself, “What can I do precisely because I’m injured?” thanks to the cumulative approach he developed in Zambia, which has helped him shift his mindset.
A tuk-tuk business that won him fans in Ghana
After returning to Japan and graduating from university, just as he was aiming to make his long-awaited debut in the J.League, Morishita was struck by the sudden loss of his older sister. The shock of her untimely death, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, meant there was a period when he could not play soccer.
However, with his family’s strong encouragement, he decided to continue playing soccer. He immediately accepted an offer from a team in Ghana, and a new challenge began.
As the first Asian player in the history of the Ghanaian league, he was highly anticipated locally and attracted media attention at the time.
However, he also faced racial discrimination from his coach in Ghana, and continued to be left out of matches. In response to the coach’s refusal to field foreign players, Morishita thought, “I’ll grow the number of fans who support me and put pressure on the coach from the outside.”
Morishita launched a tuk-tuk business. He hired local supporters and used the proceeds to hold soccer tournaments for children again and again. As a result, supporters who rode in the tuk-tuks, drivers, children, and their families began coming to matches, saying, “Let’s go cheer on Jindo.”
Some supporters even got angry at the coach when Morishita wasn’t playing.
His playing time grew from five minutes to ten, and he eventually played a full match. He performed so well that during his time with the team he won the award given to the player named Man of the Match, helping raise the profile of the Ghanaian league.
Overcoming his most serious injury and heading to Morocco
After signing two professional contracts in Ghana, the next stage he set his sights on was Morocco. Morocco placed fourth in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and Morishita says it is currently the strongest soccer nation in Africa.
He approached teams himself and found one willing to sign him. With the joy of being able to play in an even more competitive environment, he threw himself into training with renewed vigor.
However, during training while back in Japan, he suffered a serious injury: a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
The injury, which required ten months to recover from, dealt a major blow to his playing career and put his move to Morocco in jeopardy.
At that point, a Japanese company with a branch in Morocco called him and said, “We’ll sponsor you, so could you negotiate with the team again?”
A University of Tsukuba alumnus who had heard about Morishita’s success in Africa reached out to him. Reflecting on the connection his past efforts had brought about, he decided to take on the challenge of moving to Morocco.
Connections continue to grow in his hometown of Kurashiki
Morishita is not only making his mark as a professional player; he is also involved in various businesses through soccer.
Here are some of the stories connecting Morishita, who works in Africa and Japan, with Kurashiki.
Meeting Aile Engineering, the first Japanese company to sponsor a team in Ghana
Sponsors are essential for athletes.
Among those supporting Morishita’s activities was a company from Kurashiki that he met in Ghana.
Aile Engineering Co., Ltd. is a construction company headquartered in Kanda, Kurashiki City. Its only overseas branch is in Ghana, and Morishita hit it off with a local employee he happened to meet, chatting enthusiastically about their hometown of Kurashiki.
He later connected with the company president and signed a personal sponsorship deal. When he transferred to another team in his second year in Ghana, the company also became a team sponsor, saying it wanted to “support a soccer player from Kurashiki even more.” It made headlines as the first Japanese company to sponsor a team in Ghana.
It was a fateful meeting, with connections from Kurashiki coming together in Ghana.
A collaboration with his alma mater: a study tour in Ghana
In the winter of 2023, he took students from the soccer club at his alma mater, Okayama Prefectural Kurashiki Seiryo High School, on a study tour to learn about Ghanaian culture and soccer.
In addition to visiting Ghana, they held a workshop before the tour. In collaboration with sponsor Play Sports, they collected recycled sports equipment. They gave students at Kurashiki Seiryo High School an opportunity to consider how to deliver the equipment to local communities in a way that would lead to ideal international cooperation.
After attending all four workshops, the students came up with a plan to “hold a soccer tournament and give away sports equipment as prizes.” They then held a soccer tournament locally.
Kurashiki Seiryo High School also donated equipment, and J.League player Nakano Seiya and comedian Chihara Seiji also reportedly supported the event as sponsors.
The event was a great success, and they deepened their connections with local people.
The study tour was a valuable experience for the high school students. With the goal of “connecting schools in Africa and Kurashiki City to expand educational opportunities,” he is working to make the program an ongoing initiative.
“As someone who grew up in Kurashiki, I want to make a name for myself around the world in a way that does my hometown proud. Someday, I hope to give back to Kurashiki by sharing what I’ve learned in Africa. I’d be happy if people knew that a young person from Kurashiki is taking on challenges in Africa with grit and determination,” he says.
From the Writer
When I interviewed Morishita, I was deeply impressed by how he continues to take on challenges in unfamiliar environments.
His ability to turn dreams and goals into reality through decisive action is remarkable. Morishita’s story of overcoming difficulties and forging his soccer career with flexibility and optimism carried weight in every detail.
Morishita will continue taking on challenges in Africa, and I believe he will thrive as a bridge connecting Kurashiki and Africa.
I hope that Kurashiki residents will learn about a young person from their city making his mark in faraway Africa, and that he will gain even more local fans.
Reporting support: Sankyu Inc.
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