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Japan national football team

The Japan national football team formed in 1921. The team affiliated to FIFA in 1929 and joined the Asian Football Confederation in 1954. Japan is dedicated to the promotion of fairness in and around football. The team’s motto reads: Green grass and a ball expands the circle of friendship.”

Japan’s first international match was a friendly against China in 1917, four years before the team was officially organised. The team will not like to remember the 5-0 scoreline, or the 15-2 defeat to the Philippines the same year. Without a professional domestic league in the country, Japanese football found successes rare. The team’s first major tournament was the 1968 Olympics. Japan played well and won the bronze medal, drawing with Brazil and beating France and Mexico on the way.

In 1993 Japan created the fully professional J-League and their footballing fortunes began to change.

World cup history

1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
1998

France

With the professional J-League launched in 1993, Japan’s fortunes changed. The team qualified for the 1998 world cup in France. The appearance was not a memorable one. After losing to Argentina and Croatia as expected, Japan also lost to international lightweights Jamaica.

2002

Japan and South Korea

Japan co-hosted the 2002 world cup with South Korea, so automatically qualified. The team gained a first world cup point in their opening game, a 2-2 draw with Belgium. The team improved to win the remaining two matches in the group stage, beating Russia and Tunisia. Japan faced Turkey in the first knock-out round and lost a tight game 1-0. Turkey went on to finish in third place.

2006

Germany

The Japan national football team again qualified for the world cup in 2006, their third in a row. This time, as in 1998, the team exited without mustering a single victory. The team lost to Australia and Brazil, and drew with Croatia. The group was considered by many to be the group of death due to the quality of the three teams other than Japan.

2010

South Africa

For a fourth consecutive time, Japan qualified for the world cup in 2010. Again in a tough group, the team lost to the Netherlands but beat Cameroon and Denmark to progress to the second round. Japan faced Paraguay in the next stage. A solid performance saw the match end tied at 0-0. Extra-time provided no goals and the match was settled on penalties, with Paraguay progressing.

2014

Brazil

Hosted by Brazil the 2014 world cup was won by Germany who became the first European side to win the world cup in South America. After making it to the knock-out phase in 2010 the Japan national football team will be disappointed with their performance. Defeats to Ivory Coast and Colombia sandwiched a 0-0 with Greece to put the team bottom of the group and swiftly on their way home.

2018

Russia

The Japan national football team entered world cup qualifying in the second round where they are in Group E alongside Syria, Singapore, Afghanistan, and Cambodia.

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