A Case of Hooligaphobia.(citizens of Sapporo, Japan, expect the worst of soccer fans)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Employees at the Night in Tsuda hostess club voted to close up shop last Friday and hide. Located in Susukino--a famous nightclub district of Sapporo--the city where England was about to play Argentina in the World Cup. "We were afraid of hooligans," Masao Takahashi, the manager of the club, explained. "We didn't want our girls to get in any trouble." At the nearby Heiroku Revolving Sushi Bar, owners nervously replaced beer glasses with plastic cups--to protect against glass- smashing drunks. At the Neboke Japanese Restaurant, the proprietors locked the doors and put up a sign claiming they would be closed "for employee outings." They were running right out of town, most likely.

Fears of soccer hooliganism have been building for months across Japan as it prepared to host the World Cup. Fanned by police warnings and televised footage of drunken mobs rioting in Europe, the hysteria reached its peak in Sapporo before England's grudge rematch with Argentina last Friday. The national press was full of reports tracing this grudge back to the Falklands War, and the Japanese wanted no part of such passions. At one point last week, a NEWSWEEK reporter saw a frightened cabbie speed away from English football fans outside the stadium in Saitama, as if they were armed invaders. News editor Hiroshi Ishikawa has a name for this fear, "hooligaphobia," which he attributes to excessive "hooligan education" by the national press.

Before the England-Argentina game, downtown Sapporo was battened down as if for a hurricane. Sign boards, shop ads--anything that could be picked up and heaved by a rioting drunk--had been moved inside. One third of Susukino's 4,500 businesses were shuttered. The streets lay desolate and ...