Japan defender Yukinari Sugawara has joined Southampton in the English Premier League from Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar on a four-year contract, his new team announced Sunday. The 24-year-old right-back spent five seasons in the Netherlands after making the jump in 2019 from J-League top-flight side Nagoya Grampus, his boyhood club in central Japan’s Aichi Prefecture. He made nearly 200 appearances for Alkmaar’s first team, including a club-record 53 games in European competitions. According to British media reports, Southampton paid a 6 million pound (1.23 billion yen) transfer fee for Sugawara, w…