Hiroaki Shukuzawa

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Hiroaki Shukuzawa" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Hiroaki Shukuzawa

Date of birth	(1950-09-01)September 1, 1950
Place of birth	Hino, Tokyo
Date of death	June 17, 2006(2006-06-17) (aged 55)
Rugby union career
Position(s) Scrum-half Amateur team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) Waseda University Rugby Football Club () International career Years Team Apps (Points) 1973–1974 Japan 3 (0) Coaching career Years Team 1989–1991 Japan

Hiroaki Shukuzawa (宿澤広朗, Shukuzawa Hiroaki, September 1, 1950 – June 17, 2006) was a Japanese

. He also held important posts as a banker.

Shukuzawa died of a heart attack on the way back from a mountain climbing expedition in

, Tokyo.

Playing career

Born in Hino, Tokyo, he began to play rugby as scrum-half at Kumagaya High School. He continued his study and rugby at Waseda University. He became the first-choice scrum-half from his first year and was instrumental in Waseda winning the Japan Rugby Football Championship title for two consecutive years. He was the captain of the team in his fourth year but failed to defend the title as Waseda was beaten by Meiji University in the final of the University Championship. He was chosen to represent Japan when in his second year at university and earned three caps. As he intended to give up playing after the graduation, he decided to join Sumitomo Bank (current Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) that had no rugby club although he actually continued to play for a while for national duties.

Coaching career

On May 28, 1989, his team beat a weakened Scotland team shorn of nine British Lions then on tour in Australia (

in Tokyo. It was the first time Japan had beaten a top-tier IRB nation.

Then in the

. This remains Japan's only Rugby World Cup victory out of a total of twenty games from all six World Cups between 1987 and 2007.

Administrative career

He played a leading role in Japanese rugby and helped to establish both the

Top League

in an effort to modernize and strengthen the game in his country. A graduate of Waseda University, Shukuzawa joined Sumitomo Bank in 1973. He spent seven and a half years in the London branch of the bank. He worked as an executive director of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) in Tokyo.

See also

• Waseda University Rugby Football Club

References

Sporting positions
Preceded by Hiroshi Hibino	Japan National Rugby Union Coach 1989–1991	Succeeded by Osamu Koyabu