Locals go wild for Beckham

The presence of the England team in Japan has sent the public here into a frenzy, with the popularity of David Beckham and co challenging that of the national team.

The sheer scale of the interest was demonstrated at yesterday's friendly against Cameroon. The crowd was almost entirely Japanese and all but a handful of these were supporting England.

Hundreds had the St George cross painted on their faces, tens of thousands wore the England shirt. After the match 5,000 lingered for more than half an hour after the final whistle and were rewarded with a Beckham training session on the pitch.

As he finished he kicked the ball into the stands; the resulting shrieks were louder than those which greeted any of the match's four goals.