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Nishigaoka National Stadium

Kita Ward, Tokyo

How Nishigaoka ever got to be called "National Stadium" is a mystery to most first-time visitors. The simple reason is that it happens to be located in the complex that houses the National Sports Science Center -- a training center and education facility sponsored by the national government. However, this comes off sounding like a weak excuse. After all, the small baseball diamond in the same complex is not referred to as "National Baseball Stadium", is it?

There are, in fact, occasional national team matches played at Nishigaoka, usually involving the ladies national team or the U-18 squad, or some other group that is unlikely to draw more than the stadium's 9,600 or so capacity (the official literature says that it holds 10,000, but otherwise reliable "stadium buffs" list it as 9,787 or 9,538).