Healthy modern Japanese error atonement
With the South African 2010 FIFA World Cup in its final stages I have found another surprising smiling winner. I had already awarded the Danish footballer Simon Poulsen a personal award for his Buddha Smile but now I have discovered another. Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura gets my runners up medal although if points were also awarded for breaking with tradition he would perhaps get the first prize.
Nishimura San was the referee appointed for the Brazil versus Netherlands quarter-final match and in spite of his cultural background: usually requiring that all official matters be taken extremely seriously and should errors be made, well… the ultimate atonement, of course, is seppuku (hara-kiri), he completely dispensed with aeons of tradition by chuckling in front of the world when he made his mistake.
Andre Ooijer (wearing the unlucky 13 shirt) had committed a relatively minor infringement by kicking the ball away contrary to the spirit of the game and Nishimura San came running over initially brandishing a red card. He soon realised the error and the funny side by chuckling as he proudly thrust the correct yellow card up in the air in front of the extremely relieved Andre Ooijer.
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- It looks like it is a red card Mr Ooijer
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- Just a moment! – ちょっと待って
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- Yellow, that’s better and not too bad after all eh, Ooijer San?
It has to be said that Nishimura was credited with an excellent refereeing performance at this and other games and Andre Ooijer also played his part in a positive result for the Netherlands which eventually took them through to the final.
So well done Nishimura San, de heer Ooijer, Simon Poulsen and last but not least South Africa.
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