Prepared for the Worst : At almost every World Cup, hooliganism rears its ugly head. But Japan and South Korea are ready for football's thugs.(Brief Article)(Illustration)

Just outside Yokohama stadium, several hundred policemen stare down the crowd. "Quiet down," booms a voice, in English, Spanish and Japanese, over the loudspeaker. "Disperse immediately." Some 150 screaming "hooligans," faces painted and armed with burning wooden sticks, throw chairs back at the front line. Firecrackers explode all around. An electric billboard flickers the same warning. The rioters grow only more threatening. Suddenly water cannons appear, and within minutes the last persistent "thug" is knocked to the ground. Another Japanese dress rehearsal for World Cup 2002 has ended in success--and without casualties.

As Asia opens its arms to the world's best teams--and nearly 1 million of their supporters--it is keeping another set of arms firmly braced to combat hooliganism. Fearing a repeat of Marseilles 1998, where nearly 50 were arrested and 30 injured in clashes between England and Tunisia supporters, Japan and South Korea have taken every precaution. But while South Korea has decades of experience in quelling aggressive demonstrations--including rampant pro-democracy rallies in the 1980s-- Japan has virtually had to learn from scratch. To add to its troubles, Japan was the unlucky winner chosen to host England, the team most infamous for its hooligans.

So far, the crash course has gone well. Since 1998 Japanese officials have toured Europe and South America, consulting top football authorities to learn how to fight the game's main malady and to train in the art of "spotting"--locating potential troublemakers in a crowd of football supporters. And the best in the world are lending a hand; about 100 of the world's top spotters from 14 different countries are expected to attend World Cup 2002 to assist local authorities.

The ideal, of course, is to keep hooligans out of Asia altogether. In March a blacklist of more than 1,000 known and suspected hooligans was sent from various nations to the cohosts. British authorities have imposed a strict travel ban on 1,007 past offenders. But authorities admit that troublemakers could still slip through; in early May a 38-year-old Brit on the hooligan list was stopped at Seoul's international airport and promptly sent home.

To help combat the problem, Japanese authorities have taken steps to educate the public. Countless television programs on the subject have aired ...