Japan’s Yamashita Yoshimi: Female Referee Set to Make History at World Cup in Qatar

Yamashita officiates a match at the 2020 Summer Olympics between the United States and Sweden on July 21, 2021, at the Ajinomoto Stadium. (© Kyōdō)

Takami Satoko makes a call as home plate umpire during a Kansai 6 University Baseball League game at Green Stadium Kobe (now Hotto Motto Field Kobe) in Hyōgo Prefecture on May 24, 2002. (© Kyōdō)

Amano Akiko officiates at the2020 Summer Olympic jūdō competition at Tokyo’s Budōkan on July 30, 2021. Along with being a seventh dan, she is also the fifteenth-generation head of a traditional fireworks maker Kagiya. (© Jiji)