{"id":28301,"date":"2015-06-10T15:34:03","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T06:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/?p=28301"},"modified":"2015-06-10T15:35:29","modified_gmt":"2015-06-10T06:35:29","slug":"elite-soccer-athlete-and-student-hikari-takagi-the-only-student-player-in-japans-under-23-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/news\/28301","title":{"rendered":"Elite soccer athlete and student, Hikari Takagi &#8211; the only student player in Japan&#8217;s under-23 team"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Making Waseda number one in Japan<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Hikari Takagi<br \/>\nFourth year, School of Sport Sciences<br \/>\nWaseda University Association Football Club Women\u2019s Division<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28305 alignright\" alt=\"s1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/06\/s1.jpg\" width=\"265\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cWhat I enjoyed most was kicking the ball,\u201d says Hikari Takagi with a carefree smile, commenting on the joy of playing soccer for the first time as an elementary student. Ever since the Japan-Korea FIFA World Cup in 2002, Takagi became obsessed with soccer and competed at the top levels in Japan throughout junior and senior high school.<\/p>\n<p>Takagi frequently tours overseas as a representative of Japan and Universiade competitor while participating in the Waseda University Association Football Club. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m too busy. I like having a packed schedule. Touring overseas feels unreal, because I make so much progress on areas I need to improve on,\u201d she says cheerfully. \u201cWhen I can\u2019t attend classes, I keep in touch with my professors and submit my reports while on tour. I\u2019m taking a sports business marketing seminar, and this year I\u2019m planning on writing my graduation thesis on a survey of soccer cleats for women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy goal is to make Waseda the number one women\u2019s university team in Japan, something never achieved before. I\u2019m certain we\u2019ll see results if we just work hard, and doing so will also help me in terms of growing as a player. I want to give my all no matter what area of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-28303 aligncenter\" alt=\"2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/06\/21.jpg\" width=\"756\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/06\/21.jpg 756w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/06\/21-610x484.jpg 610w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\" \/><\/p>\n<h6>Hikari Takagi<\/h6>\n<p>Originally from Shizuoka, Hikari Takagi graduated from Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana Senior High School. She is both one of the members of Japan\u2019s national under-23 soccer team and a participant in the women\u2019s Universiade. Her position on the Japan under-23 team is as mid fielder\u2014someone who tries to create offensive opportunities. Her major successes as part of Japan national teams includes finishing second in the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup and placing third in the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women\u2019s World Cup. Her favorite soccer player is former England representative Steven Gerrard.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Making Waseda number one in Japan Hikari Takagi Fourth year, School of Sport Sciences Waseda University Associ [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,117],"tags":[174],"class_list":["post-28301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-topic","tag-sports-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28310,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28301\/revisions\/28310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}