Tatsuo Mikami

Former goalkeeper of the Japanese national team. He is the personal coach of Wakabayashi. He was be the first to find out who Roberto really is. He made Wakabayashi follow a hellish training before his match against Nankatsu and Tsubasa. As Wakabayashi felt depressed after taking a goal, Mikami hit him and told him that he would stop coaching him. That made Wakabayashi return to the field with more composure. At Wakabayashi’s side as he was unable to play during most of the national tournament, he took care of Wakabayashi’s injury in order to help him play the final match. Wanting the Japanese soccer to level up at all cost, after the tournament he was sent by the Japanese soccer organisation to West Germany. Before leaving, he asked Wakabayashi if he wanted to go with him, and Wakabayashi agreed.

Mikami returned to Japan alone after 3 years, to see the middle school national tournament. His objective is to gather the best players to form the All Japan Jr. Youth team, in order to take part in the International Jr. Youth Tournament in France. Mikami listened to the players’ wishes a lot, followed Misugi’s tactical suggestions, and even accepted the decision from some of the players not to let Tsubasa play. He asked his former pupil Wakabayashi to play the role of the bad guy, in order for the team to realize the strength of the other countries. His tactical decisions proved great in the first two matches, as he kept Misaki and Misugi as secret weapons, which overturned the tide of these matches. However, he made a mistake by listening to Misugi and the Tachibana twins in the match against France, by letting them play, which left Japan with no substitutions left, only 10 players on the field, and 5 of them being injured in extra time. Still winning thanks to their guts, Mikami’s last decision was to let Wakabayashi play the final match against West Germany, and that had a huge positive consequence on the game.

Starting as All Japan Youth’s coach in the World Youth series, Mikami had to tell Wakashimazu that he would chose Wakabayashi as the regular keeper, ending up in Wakashimazu leaving the team. As the R.J.7 appeared, Mikami had to go through surgery for an appendicitis complicated into a peritonitis, leaving his role of coach to Gamo, though this decision wasn’t motivated by his surgery but by Gamo’s passion. In the end of the Asian preliminaries, Wakashimazu came back in the team, presenting his excuses to Mikami, who admitted that both of them were being stubborn, which probably came from their single-minded goalkeeper characters.

In Road to 2002, Mikami was Japan Youth’s coach, formed by the next age players and led by Sawada. The team broke through the Asian preliminaries after a close match against Korea in the final match.