Some people think that all you have to do is blow into a whistle to emit a shrill peep that can be heard above the roar of thousands of fans, but Kazuhiro Noda, a Japanese craftsman who claims to produce "the best whistles in the world," thinks differently.
"Referees care about the quality of whistles because they are partly judged on the way they blow up," Noda, 71, explained to AFP in an interview at his home-cum-workshop of his company, Noda Kakuseisha, ("Crane's Voice") north of Tokyo.
"Sometimes, the referee has to blow three times, two short bursts, then a third after taking another breath. If the quality (of the whistle), isn't good, he won't be able to do it," said Noda.
"That's why referees often have two whistles," he added.
Noda's whistles the Rolls Royces of this niche market: cast in nickel, then repeatedly chrome-plated to withstand long use and polished to a mirror finish. The most expensive model in a gold finish with a serial number costs 8,400 yen (68 dollars), although prices start around 3,000 yen.
While not an official supplier to the 2002 World Cup, Noda, a canny marketing man, is hoping the tournament will prove a showcase for his whistles just as France 98 was after the sound of his craftsmanship seduced the ears of Masyoshi Okada, the first Japanese to referee a World Cup game.
Noda gave him 70 pairs of whistles (one gold, one silver) to hand out to other FIFA referees. This year, he presented 120 pairs to the Japanese organising committee, JAWOC in the hope that many of the referees for matches both in Japan and South Korea would chose his "babies."
He is not the only manufacturer to employ this strategy, with rivals including Canada's Fox 40, and whistles from Taiwan and Italy, but Noda is confident he has a superior product.
"The Canadian whistle has a low note which the players hardly react to, while the Italian one is too tremulous and the Taiwanese one is of poor quality," he said.
The secret of a good whistle, according to Noda, who has been practising his trade for 34 years, lies in the size of the opening and the 'pea' inside. If the hole is too large, the air is lost soundlessly, while Noda treats his 'peas' -- actually tiny balls of cork -- to close the pores and prevent them becoming saturated with saliva.
"Before going into whistle-making in 1968 at the request of our American clients, we had been exporting har-
monicas and other musical instruments for about 50 years, and that's where our know-how comes from," Noda explained.
Noda took as his model for his earliest efforts British market leader of the day, J Hudson and Co.'s Acme whistle, but over the years he has refined it with the typical perfectionism of the Japanese.
By the early 1970s, Noda Kakuseisha had overtaken Acme in North America, shipping 650,000 whistles a year, 300,000 of which ended up in American schools.
But the inexorable rise in the value of the yen against the dollar forced the company to look for other outlets, such as Europe, where -- "amazed at the quality of our whistles," according to Noda, the French company Sampic acted as its official sales agent for 21 years until 1994.
During that time, the Japanese whistles found favour far beyond the playing field, in use with the French police and national railway operator SNCF, as well as at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
It was Sampic, which in 1977, first suggested to its Japanese partner the idea of manufacturing whistles for football with a more piercing sound. They proved so successful that they have been used by referees in Germany's Bundesliga since 1978, and in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups in Spain and Mexico.
For the current tournament, Noda, has paid FIFA for the right to stamp its logo on a limited edition of 1,000 of his whistles, which will be sold at the 10 Japanese World Cup venues and he signed a contract with Adidas Japan too.