For example, the organisers said that "millions of Japanese fans are getting caught up in Rugby World Cup mania". You might think that almost selling out stadiums for the Rugby World Cup is satisfactory considering rugby has minority sport status in soccer and baseball-loving Japan. In other words, New Zealand is rugby mad and Japan is not. With that said, the World Cup will no doubt attract new players and audiences to rugby in Japan. There seems to be an interest in the game at a superficial level, with "rugby" and "Rugby World Cup' appearing on Google Trends in Japan since the event kicked off.

Source: Stuff October 04, 2019 19:52 UTC