Former Japanese prime minister Yoshirō Mori served as the JRFU's current president until 2015, when Tadashi Okamura took over the position.

It had been played at the treaty ports (Kobe and Yokohama especially) before that, between teams of long-term foreign residents and visiting ships' crews, garrisons etc.

The JRFU gave the following reasons for holding the Rugby World Cup in Japan at a press conference held on 22 September 2004: However, New Zealand won the hosting rights in 2011 in a process which was later much criticised for lack of transparency as at the last minute the voting was made secret thanks to an Irish RU proposal.

In an effort to improve the overall standard of Japanese rugby, the JRFU created a new semi-professional Top League in 2003 with the season spanning 2003-04.

The winners of the first Microsoft Cup were NEC Green Rockets, who beat Toshiba Brave Lupus 24-19 on 22 February 2004.

Final - NEC Green Rockets 17 Toyota Verblitz 13 (Chichibunomiya) The address for JRFU is: Japan Rugby Football Union, Kita Aoyama 2-8-35, Minato ward, Tokyo 107-0061 For the historical background see Chapter 27 Nish, Alison (1999).