In 2010, the football player Honda Keisuke said openly that he was aiming to win the World Cup. He explained why he said it in public: Kōgen shinai to, yowai jibun ga dondon ōkiku natte shimau. “If I do not declare it, the weak me grows bigger and bigger.” The sports magazine Number put the words biggu mausu, big mouth, in its headline.
In June 2014, during the World Cup in Brazil, the newspaper Nikkan Gendai quoted him: Oretachi wa W-hai de yūshō dekiru. “We can win the World Cup.” It wrote that his big talk had led the team to overrate itself. In May 2014, another player, Ōkubo, said that Honda was taking on the role of the villain.