A day after Fumiaki Tanaka announced this would be his final season, Japan head coach Eddie Jones on Thursday lauded the veteran scrum-half's role as the "greatest driver of change" and supported the idea that he could eventually coach the national team.
Tanaka, the first Japanese to compete in Super Rugby, played in three World Cups and was a key member of the 2015 Brave Blossoms squad that won three pool-stage games including their historic victory over South Africa.
"He changed Japanese rugby," Jones, who was head coach through that World Cup in England, told reporters. "When I think back to that 2015 team, media-wise guys like (captain Michael) Leitch and (Toshiaki) Hirose were seen as being important, and they were."
"But Fumi was the greatest driver of change because he had the experience of playing for the Highlanders. He brought back with him the ruthlessness, about being proud about being Japanese. And he, more than anyone else, changed the way the team thought."
After Japan's heroics in England raised rugby's profile back home, Tanaka publicly took the Japan Rugby Football Union to task for their inability to capitalize on the moment.
"I can still remember going for lunch in Shinjuku and we were talking about the fact that this is more than just playing in the World Cup," Jones said. "This is about the future of Japanese rugby."
"And he lived that, he spread that emotion to the other players, so as you can see I couldn't speak more highly of him."
Jones admitted the two had their disagreements, but said it was to a purpose.
"We used to fight sometimes, but good fights," he said.
Tanaka said Wednesday that after the season ends he will coach at his current club's academy but that he would someday like to become the national team head coach.
"He has to find his way but he's got a fantastic understanding of rugby, really understands rugby, and that's the reason why he can be a really good coach and there's no reason he can't be the next Japan coach," Jones said.
Having returned to the head coaching job this year, Jones is hoping to reshape Japan's rugby landscape while preaching a high-speed style he wants to become the Brave Blossom's calling card, a style, he said, Tanaka epitomized.
"Fumi was a great tackler. He was a fantastic defender because he brought with him the attitude of going forward," Jones said.
"And when we are talking about super-fast rugby, one of the things we're talking about is the mindset of going forward. We're taking it to the opposition all the time, taking it with collective speed, and that's where Fumi was so great."
"We're going to get him to camp, we're just going to lock the bar."
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