Japan's bid for 2011 World Cup: It is a measure of the importance which Japan attaches to its bid for the 2011 World Cup and its presentations to the European unions that its delegation is headed by the second most important person in the country.

Yoshiro Mori is a former prime minister who is adviser to the current PM, Junichiro Koizumi, as well as being the president of the Japanese RFU.

A big, gregarious, smiling man, Mori is also, clearly, something of a rugby fan, having played the game in his days at Waseda University (Japan's equivalent of Oxford or Cambridge). A bit of a bish, bang, wallop outhalf by his admission, Mori and his high-powered delegation is conducting a hectic schedule of lobbying, having moved on from their presentations to the French, Italian and FIRA delegates last week to meet IRFU officials yesterday, before trips to Wales (today), Scotland (tomorrow) and England (Friday).

"We are not bidding to host the Rugby World Cup only for Japan," Mori said through an interpreter, the Japanese RFU chief executive Koji Tokumasu.

"The Rugby World Cup has been hosted by traditional unions until now. We believe it is time to have a new venue in Asia so that the game will become a truly global game."

As 60 per cent of the world's population lives in Asia, the ability to spread the game's global appeal is, perhaps, the most powerful plank in Japan's bid, which, along with those of New Zealand and South Africa, will be delivered to the International Rugby Board in Dublin on November 17th.

A vote will then be taken. The bidding unions cannot vote, but after the first round of voting the bidding nation with the fewest votes will drop out and can then vote in the second round, when a simple majority will decide where the 2011 World Cup will be held.

Mori stressed that "Japan has over 105 years of (rugby) history," and that it boasts the second highest number of players - 126,000 - and the most clubs, over 4,000.

However, it is the potentially greater commercial value which Japan's bid carries that far outweighs its rivals given its population of 127 million and the second largest economy in the world, and the certainty that 20 blue chip companies, headed by Toyota, would come enthusiastically on board.

Furthermore, as Tokumasu points out, having co-hosted the 2002 football World Cup, "we already have the infrastructure to host such a great sporting event."

Their bid is based on nine stadiums, four of which were built for the football World Cup, and they range from 18,000 capacity in Sendai to 92,000 in Yokohama.

Matches would be held in the evening for transmission in Europe in the early afternoon.