Updated on Tuesday, April 25, 2006, 00:00 IST

Tokyo, Apr 25: Japanese football star Hidetoshi Nakata opened a football cafe in Tokyo to offer fans a venue to gather and cheer for the the Japan team during 2006 World Cup in Germany.

To make fans who must stay up late at night to watch the games Japan will play in, live, the casual cafe offers cozy sofas and chairs as well as high speed internet connections and X-box game facilities.

This is the second time Nakata has opened a cafe -- the first one was in business during the 2002 matches held jointly by Japan and South Korea.

Four years ago the "Nakata.net cafe" in Tokyo offered fans various information through the internet and big screen TVs as 150,000 soccer fans from around the world came to Japan in during the two-months the matches were held.

"In 2002, when Japan co-hosted the world cup, the cafe was mainly aimed at foreigners who came to Japan and needed information and a place to relax. But this time as the world cup will be held in Germany, we hope it will be a place for many Japanese who can not go to Germany to get together and cheer for the national team. " said manager of the cafe Kentaro Yamada.

According to Yamada, Nakata has been deeply involved in everything about the cafe from designing interior and the exterior to choosing the food menu.

"We had only snacks last time, I think it was OK for a day time menu. But this time it will be late night when people gather so we should add some proper meals," Nakata said in a meeting with his cafe staff.

The cafe hopes to attract non-Japanese customers as well by putting all 64 live games on screens.

Nakata, who has a web diary of the same name as the cafe said on March 28 that he hope the football cafe will be a meeting place between Japanese and Non-Japanese football fans where they can share their passion for football.

The cafe will open on Tuesday (April 25) and close July 16 -- nearly a week after the final match of the World Cup is held.

Bureau Report