History
When Nagai Stadium initially opened in 1964, its capacity was 23,000, and its opening event was a football match during the 1964 Summer Olympics. The stadium's seating capacity was expanded to 50,000 in 1996 for the 52nd National Sports Festival of Japan in 1997.
The stadium hosted three matches in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
- First round
- June 12: Nigeria 0 - 0 England
- June 14: Tunisia 0 - 2 Japan
- Quarter-final
- June 22: Senegal 0 - 1 Turkey (after extra time)
Nagai Stadium has been used many times for athletic competitions; it played host to the Athletics at the 2001 East Asian Games and the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. It was also the venue for the annual Osaka Grand Prix athletics meeting which took place every May from 1996 to 2010, and it is still the starting and finishing point for the Osaka International Ladies Marathon, held annually in late January-early February.
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
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