The Japan national football team (Japanese: サッカー日本代表, Hepburn: SakkÄ Nippon DaihyÅ), nicknamed the Samurai Blue (サムライ・ブルー), represents Japan in men's international football and it's controlled by the Japan Football Association (JFA), the governing body for football in Japan. The current head coach is Hajime Moriyasu, who is also the current coach of the Japan U-23 team.
Japan was not a major football force until the end of the 1980s, with its team small and amateur, but since the 1990s, when Japanese football became fully professionalized, Japan has quickly emerged as one of the most successful teams in Asia, having qualified for the last six consecutive FIFA World Cups with second round advancements in 2002, 2010, and 2018, and having won the AFC Asian Cup a record four times, in 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2011. The team has also finished second in the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. Their principal continental rivals are South Korea, North Korea, China and most recently, Australia; though they also develop rivalries against Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Japan was the first team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América, having been invited in 1999, 2011, 2015, and 2019 editions of the tournament, although they only played in the 1999 and 2019 events.
History
Colombia v Japan - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russiaâ„¢ - Match 16 - Japan scored an early penalty and retook the lead through Osako, holding on for a victory that was the first World Cup win for an AFC nation against ...
Pre-war Era (1910sâ€"1930s)
Japan's earliest international matches were at the 1917 Far Eastern Championship Games in Tokyo, where it was represented by a team from the Tokyo Higher Normal School. Although Japan made strong showings in swimming, baseball, and track and field, its football team suffered resounding defeats to the Republic of China and the Philippines. Nevertheless, the game was promoted in Japanese schools in the 1920s. The Japan Football Association was formed in 1921, and Japan joined FIFA in May 1929.
Japan's first "true" national team (as opposed to a university team chosen to represent the country) was fielded at the 1930 Far Eastern Championship Games, and drew with China for the championship title. Shigeyoshi Suzuki coached the national team to its first Olympic appearance at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Japan was an entrant for the 1938 FIFA World Cup qualification, but withdrew before its scheduled qualifying match against the Dutch East Indies.
After World War II began in earnest, Japan did not play in international competition, except for a handful of matches against Manchuria and other colonies. Its last prewar match for purposes of Elo ratings was a friendly against the Philippines in June 1940.
While Korea was under Japanese rule, several Koreans played in international competition for Japan, including Kim Yong-sik (1936â€"40), Kim Sung-gan (1940) and Lee Yoo-hyung (1940).
Post-war Era (1950sâ€"1980s)
Japan's postwar debut was in the 1951 Asian Games in India. Japan re-joined FIFA in 1950 and played in qualifiers for the 1954 FIFA World Cup, but lost the AFC qualifying berth to South Korea after two matches, beginning an intense rivalry. Japan also joined the Asian Football Confederation in 1954.
Dettmar Cramer joined the Japan national team as coach in 1960, and helped lead the team to the round of eight at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Japan's first major achievement in international football came in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where the team won the bronze medal. Although this result earned the sport increased recognition in Japan, the absence of a professional domestic league hindered its growth and Japan would not qualify for the FIFA World Cup until 30 years later.
Japan made its first appearance in the Asian Cup in 1988, where they were eliminated in the group stage following a draw with Iran and losses to South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
The late 1980s saw concrete moves to professionalize the sport in Japan. JFA introduced a Special Licensed Player system in 1986, allowing a limited number of professional players to compete in the domestic semi-professional league. Action committees were held in 1988 and 1989 to discuss the introduction of a full professional league in Japan.
1990s: rise
In 1991, the owners of the semi-professional Japan Soccer League agreed to disband the league and re-form as the professional J.League, partly to raise the sport's profile and to strengthen the national team program. The following year Japan hosted and won the Asian Cup in their second appearance, defeating Saudi Arabia 1â€"0 in the final. The J.League was officially launched in 1993, causing interest in football and the national team to grow.
However, in its first attempt to qualify with professional players, Japan narrowly missed a ticket to the 1994 World Cup after drawing with Iraq in the final match of the qualification round, remembered by fans as the "Agony of Doha". Japan's next tournament was a defence of their continental title at the 1996 Asian Cup. The team won all their games in the group stage but were eliminated in the quarter-finals after a 2â€"0 loss to Kuwait.
The nation's first ever World Cup appearance was in 1998, where Japan lost all their games. The first two fixtures went 1â€"0 in favour of Argentina and Croatia, despite playing well in both matches. Their campaign ended with a 2â€"1 defeat to Jamaica.
2000s
In the 2000 Asian Cup, Japan managed to reclaim their title after defeating Saudi Arabia in the final, becoming Asian Champions for the second time.
Two years later, Japan co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea. After a 2â€"2 draw with Belgium in their opening match, the Japanese team advanced to the second round with a 1â€"0 win over Russia and a 2â€"0 victory against Tunisia. However, they subsequently exited the tournament during the round of 16, after losing 1â€"0 to eventual third-place finishers Turkey.
On 8 June 2005, Japan qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, its third consecutive World Cup, by beating North Korea 2â€"0 on neutral ground. However, Japan failed to advance to the Round of 16, losing to Australia 1â€"3, drawing Croatia 0â€"0 and losing to Brazil 1â€"4.
2010s
During the 2010 World Cup qualification, in the fourth round of the Asian Qualifiers, Japan became the first team other than the host South Africa to qualify after defeating Uzbekistan 1â€"0 away. Japan was put in Group E along with the Netherlands, Denmark and Cameroon, and was not expected highly due to unimpressive results in friendlies. Despite this criticisms, Japan went on to shock its opening match of the 2010 World Cup with a 1â€"0 win against Cameroon, before subsequently lost to the Netherlands 0â€"1. Then, Japan resoundingly beat Denmark 3â€"1 to advance to the next round against Paraguay, making it the first time ever Japan progressed from the group stage without hosting the World Cup. In the first knockout round, Japan were eliminated from the competition following penalties after a 0â€"0 draw against Paraguay, but received praises for its outstanding performances.
After the World Cup, head coach Takeshi Okada resigned. He was replaced by former Juventus and Milan coach Alberto Zaccheroni. In his first few matches, Japan recorded victories over Guatemala (2â€"1) and Paraguay (1â€"0), as well as one of their best ever results, a 1â€"0 victory over Argentina.
At the start of 2011, Japan participated in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar. On 29 January, they beat Australia 1â€"0 in the final after extra time, their fourth Asian Cup triumph and allowing them to qualify for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup.
Japan then started their road to 2014 World Cup in Brazil with numerous qualifiers. Throughout, they suffered only two losses to Uzbekistan and Jordan, and drawing against Australia. Afterwards, on 12 October, Japan earned a historic 1â€"0 victory over France, a team they had never before defeated. After a 1â€"1 draw with Australia they qualified for the 2014 World Cup, becoming the first nation (outside of Brazil, who hosted the tournament and qualified automatically) to qualify.
Japan started their 2013 Confederations Cup campaign with a 3â€"0 loss to Brazil. They were then eliminated from the competition after losing to Italy 3â€"4 in a hard-fought match but received praise for their style of play in the match. They lost their final match 1â€"2 against Mexico and finished in fourth place in Group A. One month later, in the EAFF East Asian Cup, they started out with a 3â€"3 draw to China. They then beat Australia 3â€"2 and beat South Korea 2â€"1 in the third and final match in the 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup to claim the title. The road to Brazil looked bright as Japan managed a 2â€"2 draw with the Netherlands and a 2â€"3 victory over Belgium. This was followed by three straight wins against Cyprus, Costa Rica and Zambia.
Japan was placed into Group C at the 2014 World Cup alongside the Ivory Coast, Greece and Colombia. They fell in their first match to Ivory Coast 2â€"1 despite initially taking the lead, allowing two goals in a two-minute span. They drew their second game to Greece 0â€"0. To qualify for the second round, they needed a victory against Colombia and needed Greece to beat Ivory Coast. Greece beat Ivory Coast 2â€"1, but Japan could not perform well against Colombia and were beaten 4â€"1, eliminating them from the World Cup. Alberto Zaccheroni resigned as head coach after the World Cup. In July 2014, former Mexico and Espanyol manager Javier Aguirre took over and Japan lost 0â€"2 to Uruguay in the first game he managed.
Aguirre would begin a strong revamp of the team, switching out Zaccheroni's long-used 4â€"2â€"3â€"1 formation for his own 4â€"3â€"3 and applied this with a roster of the J.League's finest, dropping many regulars. A 2â€"2 draw against Venezuela was followed by a 1â€"0 victory over Jamaica. However, they lost their following match to Brazil 4â€"0, with Neymar scoring all four goals. Japan's sights turned to January and their title defense at the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.
Japan won its opening match at the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Group D against Asian Cup debutantes Palestine 4â€"0, with goals from Yasuhito EndÅ, Shinji Okazaki, Keisuke Honda via a penalty and Maya Yoshida. Okazaki was named man of the match. They then faced Iraq and Jordan in their next group matches, which they won 1â€"0 and 2â€"0 respectively. They qualified to knockout stage as Group D winner with nine points, seven goals scored and no goals conceded. In the quarter-finals, Japan lost to the United Arab Emirates in a penalty shootout after a 1â€"1 draw, as Honda and Shinji Kagawa missed their penalty kicks. Japan's elimination marked their worst performance in the tournament in 19 years.
After the Asian Cup, Aguirre was sacked following allegations of corruption during a prior tenure. He was replaced by Vahid Halilhodžić in March 2015. Japan started on a rough note during qualification, losing to the UAE 1-2 at home. They then picked up the pace in their other qualifier games against Iraq, Australia, and Thailand, picking up 5 wins and 2 draws. Then, on 31 August 2017, Japan defeated Australia 2â€"0 at home thus qualifying them for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, making it their sixth successive World Cup. However, the Japan Football Association decided to sack Halilhodžić on 9 April 2018, only ten weeks before the World Cup finals, citing reasons of a breakdown in relationship between coach and player, and poor recent friendly results, and appoint the Technical Director, Japanese coach Akira Nishino, who had managed the Japanese Under-23 team at the 1996 Olympics, as the new manager.
Japan made history in the 2018 FIFA World Cup by defeating Colombia 2â€"1, their first ever victory by any AFC team against a CONMEBOL team in an official tournament, as well as Japan's first ever victory at the FIFA World Cup finals in UEFA nations. Their second match ended in a draw against Senegal, with one goal scored by Takashi Inui and the other by Keisuke Honda. Japan were defeated in their last group game in the Group H against Poland 0â€"1, leaving Japan and Senegal tied for second with an identical record, however, as Japan had received two fewer yellow cards, Japan advanced to the knockout stage on the Fair Play Points tiebreaker, the first team to do so. The match with Poland caused controversy; as Japan were made aware of their advantage over Senegal with ten minutes left and decided to play an extremely conservative game, passing the ball around to one another and keeping it in their own box, seeking to avoid any bookings and didn't attempt to take any serious shots on goal, despite losing 0â€"1, with some fans booing the players. The match received comparison to the 1982 World Cup Disgrace of Gijón, in which a similar game was played. Japan were the only AFC team to have qualified to the knockout stage. In the Round of 16 against Belgium, Japan took a surprising 2â€"0 lead with a goal in the 48th minute by Genki Haraguchi and another in the 52nd by Takashi Inui, but yielded 3 goals afterwards, including the winner by Nacer Chadli on the counterattack in the 94th minute. This was Japan's third time having reached the last 16, equaling their best result at a World Cup. Japan's defeat to eventual third-place finishers Belgium was the first time a nation had lost a knockout match at the World Cup after taking a two-goal advantage since England lost to West Germany 2â€"3 in extra-time in the quarter-final of the 1970 edition. However, Japan's impressive performance was praised by fans, pundits and medias for their fighting spirits, as demonstrated by Japan's win over Colombia, a draw to Senegal and a strong counter offensive against heavyweight Belgium.
Japan participated in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup and had an almost successful tournament. The team easily topped group F after defeating Turkmenistan 3â€"2, Oman 1â€"0 and Uzbekistan 2â€"1. The team, however, got criticized for its defensive approach, as Japan won the group with only one goal margin wins in all three matches and two later knockout stage's matches as Japan only beat fellow powerhouse Saudi Arabia in the round of sixteen and dark horse Vietnam in the quarter-finals both with 1â€"0 margin. The semi-finals saw Japan put the best performance up to date, thrashing rival powerhouse Iran 3â€"0 to reach the final. However, Japan's hope to win the fifth Asian Cup in two decades shattered with the team suffered a 1â€"3 loss to Aspire-based Qatar and finished runners-up of the tournament.
Japan were invited to the 2019 Copa America, their second appearance at the tournament, and brought a young squad to the competition. They were in Group C with Uruguay, Chile and Ecuador. They lost their opening match, 0â€"4 to Chile. Japan, however, bounced back well and managed to unluckily draw against football giants Uruguay 2â€"2, who (Uruguay) were deemed to been saved by VAR. Japan needed a win against Ecuador to qualify for the knockouts, however they drew 1â€"1 and missed out due to inferior goal differences to Paraguay. Aftermath saw Japan played a friendly game against the Paraguayans, and won 2â€"0 at home.
Japan was grouped with Myanmar, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. In a pretty easy group, Japan proved to be the dominant force in their group, having cruised Myanmar, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan without conceding a goal so far.
In December, Japan participated in the 2019 EAFF E-1 Football Championship hosted in South Korea. Coach Moriyasu summoned a young and inexperienced squad for the competition. With the young squad, Japan only managed to win against China and Hong Kong, and lost to rival South Korea, finished second in the competition.
Team image
Crest
The crest or emblem of the national team was adopted in late 2017 as part of a larger rebranding by the Japan Football Association. The crest features the Yatagarasu, a three-legged crow from Japanese mythology, holding a solid red football. The text "JFA" (for the Japan Football Association) is inscribed at the bottom of the crow. A red stripe is also present at the center of the shield behind the crow. The shield has a metallic gold trim and has a thicker black outline. The name of the country represented by the national team "Japan" is also inscribed within the black border.
The previous crest had a shield with a more complex shape. The ball held by the Yatagarasu had white details. The text "Japan" is absent and "JFA" is written in a different typeface.
Names
The Japanese team is commonly known by the fans and media as SakkÄ Nippon DaihyÅ (サッカー日本代表), Nippon DaihyÅ (日本代表), or DaihyÅ (代表) as abbreviated expressions. Although the team does not have an official nickname as such, it is often known by the name of the manager. For example, under Takeshi Okada, the team was known as Okada Japan (岡ç"°ã‚¸ãƒ£ãƒ'ン, Okada Japan). Recently, the team has been known or nicknamed as the "Samurai Blue", while Japanese news media during the 2018 FIFA World Cup still referred it to by the recently departed manager's (Akira Nishino) last name, as "Nishino Japan" (西野ジャãƒ'ン, Nishino Japan).
Kits
The national team kit design has gone through several alterations in the past. In the early 1980s, the kit was white with blue trim. The kits worn for the 1992 Asian Cup consisted of white stripes (stylized to form a wing) with red diamonds. During Japan's first World Cup appearance in 1996 Asian Cup and in 1998, the national team kits were blue jerseys with red and white flame designs on the sleeves, and were designed by JFA (with the sponsor alternating each year between Asics, Puma, and Adidas). The 1996 design was reproduced in a special kit used against Syria on 7 June 2017.
Japan uses blue and white rather than red and white due to a superstition. Japan used blue shirts in a 3â€"2 victory over Sweden in the first game of its maiden major international competition, the 1936 Summer Olympics. When Japan was coached by Kenzo Yokoyama (1988â€"1992) the kits were red and white, matching the colours of Japan's national flag. After failures at 1990 FIFA World Cup and 1992 Summer Olympics qualifications, the red shirt was scrapped.
In the 2013 Confederations Cup and the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, Japan temporarily switched the colour of the numbers from white to gold.
Japan's kit is provided by German company Adidas, the team's exclusive kit supplier since April 1999. Before that, Asics and Puma had been the team's official apparel sponsor alongside Adidas.
Sponsorship
Japan has one of the highest sponsorship incomes for a national squad. In 2006 their sponsorship income amounted to over 16.5 million pounds.
Primary sponsors include Adidas, Kirin, Saison Card International, FamilyMart, JAL, MS&AD Insurance Group, Asahi Shinbun, Mizuho Financial, Daito Trust Construction and KDDI.
Mascot
The mascots are "Karappe" (カラッペ) and "Karara" (カララ), two Yatagarasu wearing the Japan national football team kit. The mascots were designed by Japanese manga artist Susumu Matsushita. Each year when a new kit is launched, the mascots change uniforms.
For the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Pokémon character Pikachu served as the mascot.
Fan chanting
Japanese national team supporters are known for chanting "Nippon Ole" (Nippon is the Japanese word for Japan) at home matches.
Rivalries
South Korea
Japan maintains a strong football rivalry with South Korea. The football rivalry is long-seated and is often seen as an extension of an overall historic rivalry between the 2 nations. Japan meets South Korea 79 times, with the South Koreans have a dominant record, with 42 wins, 23 draws, 14 losses and South Korea has 153 goals, only lost 70 goals. The two countries also share a strong World Cup and Asian Cup records that is nearly unrivalled in the Asian continent.
Australia
Japan began to develop a fierce rivalry with fellow Asian powerhouse Australia, shortly after the latter joined the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The rivalry is regarded as one of Asia's biggest football rivalries. The rivalry is a relatively recent one, born from a number of highly competitive matches between the two teams since Australia joined the AFC in 2006. The rivalry began at the 2006 World Cup where the two countries were grouped together, and continued with the two countries meeting regularly in various AFC competitions, such as the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, the 2011 AFC Asian Cup Final and the 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup.
China
Japan also has a long-standing rivalry with China, because of historical tensions between two countries in the past. China is leading the series with 16 wins, with Japan only has 14 wins; however Japan has achieved more successes than China.
Coaching staff
Players
Current squad
The following players were called-up for the 2019 EAFF E-1 Football Championship, held in December 2019.
Caps and goals as of 18 December 2019 after the match against  South Korea.
Recent call-ups
The following players have been called up to the Japan squad in the last 12 months.
Player records
- Statistics below are from matches which the Japan Football Association consider as official.
Updated to 14 November 2019:
Previous squads
Schedule and results
2019
2020
Managerial history
- As of 10 December 2019
Head-to-head record against other countries
As of 19 November 2019.
FIFA rankings
Last update was on 25 October 2018. Source:
    Worst Ranking      Best Ranking      Worst Mover      Best Mover Â
Competitive record
- *Denotes draws includes knockout matches decided on penalty shootouts. Red border indicates that the tournament was hosted on home soil. Gold, silver, bronze backgrounds indicate 1st, 2nd and 3rd finishes respectively. Bold text indicates best finish in tournament.
FIFA World Cup
AFC Asian Cup
Copa América
Japan is the first team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América, having been invited to the 1999 Copa América. Japan was also invited to the 2011 tournament and initially accepted the invitation. However, following the 2011 TÅhoku earthquake and tsunami, the JFA later withdrew on 16 May 2011, citing the difficulty of releasing some Japanese players from European teams to play as replacements. On the next day, CONMEBOL invited Costa Rica to replace Japan in the competition.
On 16 August 2013, CONMEBOL president Eugenio Figueredo announced that Japan was invited to the 2015 Copa América. However, Japan later declined the invitation due to scheduling problems.
On 14 May 2018, CONMEBOL announced that Japan, alongside Qatar, would be the two invited teams for the 2019 Copa América.
FIFA Confederations Cup
Olympic Games
Since 1992, the Olympic team has been drawn from a squad with a maximum of three players over 23 years age, and the achievements of this team are not generally regarded as part of the national team's records, nor are the statistics credited to the players' international records.
Asian Games
- Football at the Asian Games has been an under-23 tournament since 2002.
Team records
- As of 23 January 2015
- Biggest victory
- 15â€"0 vs Philippines, 27 September 1967
- Heaviest defeat
- 15â€"2 vs Philippines, 10 May 1917
- Most consecutive victories
- 8, 8 August 1970 vs. Indonesia â€" 17 December 1970 vs. India
- 8, 14 March 1993 vs. United States â€" 5 May 1995 vs. Sri Lanka
- 8, 26 May 1996 vs. Yugoslavia â€" 12 December 1996 vs. China
- Most consecutive matches without defeat
- 20, 24 June 2010 vs. Denmark â€" 11 November 2011 vs. Tajikistan
- Most consecutive defeats
- 6, 10 June 1956 vs. South Korea â€" 28 December 1958 vs. Malaya
- Most consecutive matches without victory
- 11, 13 August 1976 vs. Burma â€" 15 June 1976 vs. South Korea
- Most consecutive draws
- 4, 13 August 1976 vs. Burma â€" 20 August 1976 vs. Malaysia
- Most consecutive matches scoring
- 13, 19 December 1966 vs. Singapore â€" 16 October 1969 vs. Australia
- 13, 7 February 2004 vs. Malaysia â€" 24 July 2004 vs. Thailand
- Most consecutive matches without scoring
- 6, 18 June 1989 vs. Hong Kong â€" 31 July 1990 vs. North Korea
- Most consecutive matches conceding a goal
- 28, 6 November 1960 vs. South Korea â€" 11 December 1966 vs. Iran
- Most consecutive matches without conceding a goal
- 7, 19 November 2003 vs. Cameroon â€" 18 February 2004 vs. Oman
Individual awards
- Japan Professional Sports Grand Prize
- Years: 2002
- AFC National Team of the Year
- Years: 2000, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011
Honours
International
- Olympic Games
- Bronze medalists: 1968
- FIFA Confederations Cup
- Runners-up: 2001
Continental
- AFC Asian Cup
- Champions: 1992, 2000, 2004, 2011
- Runners-up: 2019
- Fourth place: 2007
- Asian Games
- Third place: 1951, 1966
- Fourth place: 1970
Regional
- Far Eastern Games
- Champions: 1930
- Dynasty Cup
- Champions: 1992, 1995, 1998
- Fourth place: 1990
- East Asian Football Championship
- Runners-up: 2003, 2005, 2008
- Third place: 2010
- EAFF East Asian Cup
- Champions: 2013
- Fourth place: 2015
- EAFF E-1 Football Championship
- Runners-up: 2017,2019
Other
- Afro-Asian Cup of Nations
- Champions: 1993, 2007
- AFC â€" OFC Challenge Cup
- Champions: 2001
Minor-friendly
- Kirin Cup
- Champions (11): 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011
See also
- Football in Japan
- Sport in Japan
References
External links
- Official website, jfa.jp (in English)
- Japan FIFA
- Japan at the World Cups
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