I guess it was expats playing and interested natives taking it up after seeing them in the park- a big country like Japan there are bound to be some to take an interest.
Yeah, Japan is big, but not very spacious. And everybody is to busy to play a long game like cricket.
I played once when I was in Japan for 5 years. It was on a dirt field in the middle of Kobe. Only about the size of a small football pitch.
There were teams of 4-5. A team of Indians, a couple of teams of Aussies with Kiwis scattered amongst them, and a team of Brits. Can't remember seeing any Japanese. Anyways, most of these guys were just English teachers or students, and it was nothing serious with most guys playing while intoxicated.
That was in 2004, I never heard about cricket in Japan after that. Maybe I was in the wrong circles, but I'd say the only cricket that goes on in Japan is that of groups of foreigners having a hit around. Japanese just have too tight a schedule.
And come to think of it, I did try teaching cricket for a week when I was teaching in Japan in 2002. The good ole Yellow plastic cricket bats and stumps. The Japanese kids just reverted to playing baseball.
Yeah, so chances of Japan ever getting involved in cricket?
0.1%