Japan women's soccer team awarded special honor

TOKYO, Aug. 18 Kyodo -
The Japanese government on Thursday presented the country's national women's soccer team with the People's Honor Award for their historic victory in the Women's World Cup final last month.
''You have shown the world how great Japanese women are and provided people in quake-hit areas, and all Japanese people, with courage and inspiration to cope with difficulties,'' Prime Minister Naoto Kan said as he handed out the award to the squad at his office.
The soccer players became the 19th recipients of the award and the first sporting team to be honored. Each of them was also given a set of Japanese makeup brushes and a letter from Kan and his wife Nobuko.
The award, which was inaugurated in 1977, has so far been given to 18 individuals including baseball legend Sadaharu Oh and the late film director Akira Kurosawa. The last time it was awarded it was given to the late actor Hisaya Morishige in December 2009.
The team, whose nickname ''Nadeshiko'' comes from a pink-frilled carnation symbolizing grace and beauty, won the Women's World Cup on July 17 in Frankfurt for the first time.
Their victory came as Japan struggles to recover from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated its northeastern region and triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
After the ceremony, the team's captain Homare Sawa told reporters, ''I am really delighted to have received this kind of honor.''
''We will try our best to win a gold medal at next year's London Olympics,'' Sawa said.