Hitomi Tanaka interview - On joining East Bengal, football in Japan and India

Hitomi Tanaka joined East Bengal from Dutch Eredivisie Vrouwen side Hera United Women. | Photo Credit: EAST BENGAL

One of the few hobbies that Hitomi Tanaka has is wanting to learn something new. It could be food or something else. In the last month or so that she’s been in Kolkata, she’s found out about the toto (rickshaws) and the daaber jol (coconut water).

The 33-year-old is in the City of Joy as East Bengal’s newest recruit for its AFC Women’s Champions League 2026-27 season. In joining the Moshal Girls, she also became the first-ever Japanese footballer to join an Indian women’s football team.

One indication that she has warmed up to the team could be perhaps how young midfielder Sathi Debnath addressed her as ‘Hitomi di’ on their way back from training.

“It’s my first time in another country in Asia. I’ve lived in Europe and in Japan, but this has been quite different for me. I’ve mostly spoken to my teammates and they have been really nice to me,” Tanaka told Sportstar a few days before East Bengal’s Champions League opener.

READ | East Bengal drawn with Hwacheon, Ho Chi Minh City, 4.25 SC in AFC Women’s Champions League 2026-27

When asked what brought her to the club, her answer was straightforward: “To help with the AFC”. But she brings with her a decade-long career spent in Spain and most recently, in the Netherlands.

What India can learn from Japan

Tanaka quite honestly conceded that she didn’t have any idea of Indian football before moving to the eastern side of the country. But in this short span of time, she could point out a thing or two about how Indians operate on the football pitch.

“In India, I think they solve problems on the pitch. For example, in Japan we prepare from before, but here, it’s like the players correct or adjust on the go. Back home, we try to make sure that the situation doesn’t arise,” Tanaka deduced.

Earlier this year, Japan blanked India 11-0 in the group stage of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Australia. The Nadeshiko boasted immense star power through the likes of captain Yui Hasegawa of Manchester City, Hinata Miyazawa of Manchester United, and many others. The squad also included Liverpool full-back Risa Shimizu, someone Tanaka knows from her childhood days.

When asked what Indian women’s football can learn from World No. 5 Japan, she presented a two-pronged analysis: technical and structural.

On the technical front, she suggested Indian players to improve in-game thinking.

“Small things like passing to the right or left foot. If you focus every single time, you can improve. Maybe it’s easier to trap the ball and control on the right side, but you pass it to the left because you don’t think. Every time you have to keep thinking on how to play easier, that’s how you’ll improve,” the Yokohama-born defender, who can also play in midfield, noted.

On the structural front, Tanaka reiterated something coaches and proponents of Indian women’s football have been saying for years: more teams.

“I think the Indian League has only eight teams? Maybe, 12 to 14 sides will make the league more competitive. Even in the countries I’ve played in the past, it’s like that. Moreover, the Federation can support the girls a bit more, and not just boys,” she added.

The countries she alluded to include Spain, where she spent six seasons playing for clubs like Fundación Albacete and Sporting de Huelva. Just last year, she spent a campaign with Dutch side Hera United. But there was a reason she left her home in the first place.

On women’s football culture in Japan

“When I was a kid, I was interested in playing with boys, not girls. I saw many boys playing football. Luckily, there was a girls team and I joined it,” she recalled.

Through her schooling and even university days, she kept playing. But professional women’s football wasn’t a reality in Japan back then. Tanaka played a year in her country for clubs like Sfida Setagaya FC and Yamato Sylphid, both operating in semi-professional capacity back then.

Then around 2017, she gave trials in Spain, passed them, and never looked back. Since then, Japan saw its first-ever fully professional women’s league, the WE League, introduced in 2021 which came as a huge boost to women footballers from the country.

But Tanaka felt the 2011 FIFA World Cup triumph — Japan’s win remains the only time an Asian country won the tournament — did play a role in popularising women’s football in the Island nation. But the societal fabric could be a reason behind the growth dipping a bit.

“When I was a kid, women’s football was not famous. We had to look for girls to play. But after the World Cup win, many girls wanted to play football. Many Japanese players play in England as well, so the progress has been increasing,” Tanaka said, before adding, “But after that a little bit like this [gesturing downward trend].”

“I think in Japan, it’s not popular for women to play any sports. It’s always with the men. It’s similar in India, I think. When the Japanese team wins, everyone will focus and feel good. But that’s all,” she added.

Nevertheless, Tanaka is one of countless players to come out of Japan who have plied their trade in the top leagues. Now, she will hope to help East Bengal in its quest to make the AFC Women’s Champions League knockouts. She was also named in the Indian outfit’s starting XI for its opener against Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.

“She brings a lot of experience. She will help us to cut the passing lines because I know that they (opponents) will play tiki-taka football. I think that’s why we have to keep our defensive structure clear,” East Bengal head coach Anthony Andrews.

Now Andrews hopes that the club does its job which might help keep Tanaka beyond the AFC tournament. Till then, the Japanese player will certainly look to learn a thing or two more in the time she spends in Kolkata and in the country.