Japan's Hooligan Alert

By Tim Larimer

When the brackets were drawn for this year's World Cup soccer tournament, England's games were assigned to Japan and not to the other co-host, South Korea. But to the Japanese, England plus soccer equals one thing: trouble. So the country is on full-scale alert for a hooligan invasion, especially when rivals Argentina and England face off in Sapporo on June 7. Hotels have established Brit-free zones to keep troublemakers away from everybody else. Merchants with shops near stadiums are boarding up their windows. Organizers will try to keep fans from different countries away from one another after games by posting exit signs leading in one direction in one language (say, English) and exit signs pointing the opposite way in another language (say, Spanish). Hooligans, they figure, aren't bilingual. The police are calling in reinforcements, including rugby players, to help control crowds. Britain is lending 20 hooligan spotters to scan the immigration lines at Narita International Airport. Police also are stocking up on net-shooting rifles, a la Spider-Man, that can snare up to three people at a time. "I promise we'll catch every hooligan in a great big net," Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara says. "No one will get away."

--By Tim Larimer