Jones may now be 65 but he has no intentions of slowing down any time soon.
He had a short stint as Australia’s head coach in 2023, which ended after nine matches in as many months and an early World Cup exit.
There was speculation he had spoken to Japan before he had departed his role as the Wallabies boss, which he has previously denied.
But before the year was out, he was back in charge of the Brave Blossoms for a second spell.
“I wanted to do Australia or Japan for the World Cup in Australia,” Jones said.
“The first choice was Australia, but because of circumstances – a lot was beyond my control but in the year I had I didn’t coach well.
“I tried to do things too quickly. Then Japan became an option.”
Jones had spoken about his desire to improve rugby globally but his immediate ambition is to keep developing the sport in Japan.
“I’ve been in the coaching game for a long time and I want to make Japan, within the conditions we’ve got, sustainably successful,” he said.
“Those teams in 2015 and 2019, sometimes you are lucky when a group of players come through at the same time and they help you win.
“But then they don’t always come through, and you have to create a system that Ireland have where the development of players is consistent.
“I’m trying to encourage the Japan Rugby Union, within the university structure, to how we can create a mini high performance environment so the kids can come through a bit quicker.”
Jones has a contract until the World Cup and then “we’ll take it from there”.
But, he says, after giving so much to the game over three decades of coaching, it may be his wife, Hiroko, who has the final say.
“I don’t have any preconception [about how long he will coach for] and maybe my wife will make the decision this time.
“But I’ll go to the World Cup and we’ll take it from there.
“I love the game and I love coaching. I want to see the game get better. We need to sort the game out.”
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