In the aftermath of his side’s defeat to Wales, the Japan head coach Eddie Jones already had more than half an eye on England. “We’ll need to be able to break up the game,” the veteran schemer said with a glint in his eye and a familiar smirk on his face. “If we play an orthodox game of rugby, we’re probably going to struggle to beat them. And the English don’t react well to unorthodox rugby. We’ve got to think about how we can play quite unorthodoxly.”

Jones speaks, of course, from experience. It was his England side that were baffled by Italy’s radical ruck tactics in the Six Nations in 2017; in a neat twist, Conor O’Shea, the architect of that plan, now heads up performance at England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU). “Maybe we’ll play like Italy did in 2017,” Jones teased. “Can you still play like that in the rucks? I don’t think you can, can you?”

England are bracing for something similarly avant-garde nonetheless. It is instructive, though, that Jones is having to talk in such terms about a side he does not yet see as an equal to the world’s top teams. Japan beat Italy and pushed Ireland close in July, before coming within three points of Australia in August – they have the talent to at least give England a fright.

There is one key difference from those games, though. In each of those encounters, Japan were steered from fly half by Ryunosuke Ito, a 21-year-old playmaker long tipped for a bright future who was named to start against France before he had even played a senior club game. He took to Test rugby like a natural; through the Nations Championship, Australia series and Pacific Nations Cup, the No 10 shirt was his. For a team that had struggled to replace Yu Tamura, and with Lee Seung Sin injured, here was the welcome emergence of a new, young star.

That flourishing has been brought to a strange and unwelcome halt, though. Ito is not in the United Kingdom with the rest of Jones’s squad, with Riku Kitahara steering the ship against Wales in Cardiff instead. Kitahara performed well; about as well as one might expect of a player reportedly described by Jones as his fourth-choice fly half.

There is no injury to speak of to Ito. Why, then, is he absent? Well, it has to do with a strange rugby hierarchy that persists in Japan. While his colleagues are battling the best in men’s Test rugby in Europe, Ito will be obliged to pull on the shirt of Meiji University as he completes his education. “He’s the only 10 for a tier one nation in the world who has to go and play for an amateur team now,” Jones complained after the recent defeat to Fiji, according to rugbyjp.com. “Imagine if [baseball superstar] Shohei Ohtani went back to play for Keio University.”

It is a challenge that just about every homegrown Japan international faces. The development pathway is clear in the country, with young players on average making their senior club debut about three years later than those in England, for example. As a model, it is more akin to that of the NFL, and can bring benefits in preparing individuals for life after rugby – take the former wing Kenki Fukuoka, who burned brightly in a six-year international career before retiring at the age of 28 to become a doctor.

Of course, Jones would rather have Ito as his disposal, but some time off may be no bad thing for a player adjusting to the highest level. These are fascinating times more generally for Japanese rugby, too. Changes to the eligibility of international players within the Japan Rugby League One are set to be introduced for the next campaign, which may limit opportunities for overseas players and – more controversially – naturalised citizens. That may in part explain the raft of Springboks announced to be returning to South Africa in recent weeks, although other factors are at play.

Homegrown player development remains an area of emphasis for Japan. A look at their squad that faced Wales was evidence of how they have used their international imports well, getting the best out of one another. Dylan Riley – born in South Africa, schooled in Australia – has emerged as an excellent centres since joining the Saitama Wild Knights in 2018, while the second row partnership of Warner Dearns and Harry Hockings is as imposing as any in the world, making up for an historic shortcoming.

Wellington-born Dearns was arguably the best lock in Super Rugby Pacific during a title-winning campaign with the Hurricanes – and rebuffed an approach from the All Blacks to switch allegiance, noting all that Japan had given him. "I turned them down and said I'd come back and play [in Japan],” the outstanding second row explained. “I went to high school in Japan, was invited into the national team training camp, and was given so many opportunities. It would be a waste to throw all of that away and go and play for New Zealand." An imperfect system it may be but Japan are prepared to do things differently.