Japanese national soccer team / world championships

Japan
Nihon-koku / Nippon-koku

World Cup record goalscorer:	Keisuke Honda (4)
World Cup record players:	Makoto Hasebe , Eiji Kawashima and Yūto Nagatomo (11 each)
Rank :	30th
Organizer:	2002 (together with South Korea)
Balance sheet
21 World Cup games 5 wins 5 draws 11 losses 20:29 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Japan 0: 1 Argentina Toulouse ( FRA ); June 14, 1998
Biggest World Cup victories Japan 2-0 Tunisia Osaka ( JPN ); June 14, 2002 Japan 3: 1 Denmark Rustenburg ( ZAF ); June 24, 2010
Biggest World Cup defeats Japan 1: 4 Brazil Dortmund ( DEU ); June 22, 2006 Japan 1-4 Colombia Cuiabá ( BRA ); June 24, 2014
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	6 ( first : 1998 )
Best results	Round of 16 2002, 2010, 2018
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(As of July 2, 2018 )

The article contains a detailed description of the Japanese national soccer team at world championships . Japan has been a regular at the World Cup finals since 1998. In the all-time table of World Cup participants, Japan is 30th.

overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1930	Uruguay	not participated
1934	Italy	not participated
1938	France	not participated
1950	Brazil	not participated
1954	Switzerland	not qualified				In the qualification to South Korea failed
1958	Sweden	not participated
1962	Chile	not qualified				In the qualification to South Korea failed, but that could not qualify well.
1966	England	not participated
1970	Mexico	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Australia , which could not qualify either.
1974	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification of Israel failed, but that could not qualify well.
1978	Argentina	not qualified				In the qualification in the first round, South Korea failed, but they also failed to qualify.
1982	Spain	not qualified				In the qualification to North Korea failed, the also failed to qualify.
1986	Mexico	not qualified				In the qualification in the East finals to South Korea failed.
1990	Italy	not qualified				In the qualification in the first round, North Korea failed, which also failed to qualify.
1994	United States	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Saudi Arabia and South Korea (see also "Tragedy of Doha" )
1998	France	Preliminary round	Argentina , Croatia , Jamaica	31.	Takeshi Okada	Eliminated without a point as last group.
2002	South Korea / Japan	Round of 16	Turkey	9.	Philippe Troussier	Automatically qualifies as a co-host.
2006	Germany	Preliminary round	Australia , Croatia , Brazil	28.	Zico	Eliminated as last group.
2010	South Africa	Round of 16	Paraguay	9.	Takeshi Okada	Defeat on penalties (3: 5) after 0: 0 a.d.
2014	Brazil	Preliminary round	Ivory Coast , Greece , Colombia	29	Alberto Zaccheroni	Eliminated as bottom of the group without a win.
2018	Russia	Round of 16	Belgium	15th	Akira Nishino	Japan was the first team in World Cup history to qualify for the round of 16 due to the fair play rating.
2022	Qatar

Statistics (data including qualification 2018: 21 world championships)

• No participation: 6 × (30%; 1930, 1934, 1938, 1950, 1958 and 1966)
• Unqualified: 9 × (45%; 1954, 1962, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994)
• Athletic qualification: 5 × (24% or 33% of the attempts)
• Participation without qualification as a host: once (5%; 2002)
  • Preliminary round: 3 × (14%; 1998, 2006 and 2014)
  • Round of 16: 3 × (14%; 2002, 2010 and 2018)

World Cup tournaments

World Championships 1930 to 1950

The Japan Football Association was founded in 1921 as the “Greater Japan Football Association” and incorporated into FIFA in 1929, but the Japanese did not take part in any of the three pre-war World Cups. There was also no report on the first soccer world championship after the Second World War. It is not clear from the sources whether the Japanese, who, like Germany, were not admitted to the Olympic Games in 1948 as culprits in World War II, were also not admitted to the 1950 World Cup. In fact, Japan played only one international match after the 1936 Olympic Games : against the Philippines on June 16, 1940 , and then followed a long break of almost eleven years. It was not until March 7, 1951, that the first post-war international match between the Japanese took place in the Indian capital New Delhi against Iran .

World Championship 1954

For the first time, the Japanese took part in qualifying for the World Cup in Switzerland. Before the start of qualification, the Taiwanese Football Association and the People's Republic of China withdrew their reports because of political tensions. The remaining teams from South Korea and Japan then competed twice in Japan. Japan took the lead 1-0 through Ken Naganuma in their first game , but lost 5-1. The second game ended 2-2. South Korea had thus qualified for the World Cup finals in Switzerland. There South Korea lost against Hungary with 0: 9 and against Turkey with 0: 7 and thus eliminated in the preliminary round.

World Championship 1958

The Japanese did not take part in qualifying for the World Cup in Sweden .

World Championship 1962

In qualifying for the World Cup in Chile , Japan lost to South Korea 1: 2 and 0: 2, which means that South Korea qualified for the intercontinental playoff against Yugoslavia. The playoff games were lost 1: 5 and 1: 3, so Yugoslavia qualified for the World Cup finals in Chile and came fourth there.

World Championship 1966

The Japanese did not take part in qualifying for the World Cup in England . North Korea qualified for the World Cup with two games against Australia in neutral Phnom Penh after all African teams and South Korea withdrew before the start of the qualifying games.

World Championship 1970

In qualifying for the World Cup in Mexico , Japan only finished last behind Australia and South Korea in a group of three at a tournament in Seoul with two draws and two defeats and thus eliminated. Group winners Australia then lost the decisive playoff games for the World Cup finals against Israel .

1974 World Cup

In the qualification to determine the Asia-Oceania representative of the 1974 World Cup in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Japanese first had to play in a group match against Israel and lost 2-1. In the following group stage they were able to win against South Vietnam 4-0 and thus a World Cup qualifier for the first time, but lost against Hong Kong with 0-1, which had also won 1-0 against South Vietnam. As a result, the Japanese met Israel again in the semi-finals as runners-up in the group and were eliminated 0-1 after extra time. Israel then lost to South Korea , which was defeated in the last round in three games to the World Cup finals Australia.

World Championship 1978

In the first qualifying round , Japan failed to beat South Korea and Israel, did not score a goal and only won a point in the 0-0 victory over South Korea. South Korea then failed because of Iran, the only representatives from Asia and Oceania at the World Cup finals in Argentina.

World Championship 1982

In qualifying for the World Cup in Spain , the Japanese won the division game against Singapore 1-0. In the group with China and Macau , they finished second with one win and one defeat and then lost the semi-final against North Korea , which was defeated by China in the final. In the final qualifying round of the Asia-Oceania zone, China only finished third ahead of Saudi Arabia and behind Kuwait and New Zealand , both of which qualified for the World Cup finals in Spain.

1986 World Championship

In qualifying for the second World Cup in Mexico , Japan won the first round unbeaten against North Korea and Singapore. In the East Asian semi-finals, there were two wins against Hong Kong. The East Asian final was then lost to South Korea 1: 2 and 0: 1. South Korea was thus qualified as a representative of East Asia for the World Cup finals in Mexico.

World Cup 1990

In qualifying for the second World Cup in Italy , Japan could not prevail against North Korea in the first group stage and only finished second ahead of Indonesia and Hong Kong. The qualification was lost by a 0-2 in the last game in North Korea, but also in three goalless games against the other two group opponents. North Korea only finished sixth and last in the final group stage. Ultimately, it was South Korea that qualified, and the United Arab Emirates for the only time to date .

World Championship 1994

In qualifying for the World Cup in the USA , Japan prevailed in the first round at tournaments in Japan and the United Arab Emirates as group winners against the United Arab Emirates, Thailand , Bangladesh and Sri Lanka . A point was only given in the 1-1 draw in the last game against the United Arab Emirates. In the final group with Saudi Arabia , South Korea , Iraq , Iran and North Korea, Japan was tied with South Korea, but only third behind group winners Saudi Arabia and South Korea due to the worse goal difference. The last game against Iraq went down in history as the tragedy of Doha . The Japanese, who had been leading in the table up to that point, were in the lead 2-1 by the 92nd minute of the game and would have qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Iraq managed to equalize in stoppage time. With Saudi Arabia and South Korea winning their last games, they both overtook the Japanese and qualified for the World Cup finals. The draw was of no use to Iraq, only a victory by five goals would have allowed them to overtake South Korea. Japan coach Marius Johan Ooft was sacked ten days after the game.

World Championship 1998

In qualifying for the second World Cup in France , they won the group in the first round at tournaments in Oman and Japan against Oman , Macau and Nepal . Only in the last game against Oman, a 1-1 goal was conceded and a point was given. In the second round, Japan finished second behind South Korea in front of the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and therefore had to play against Iran in a relegation game, which was won 3-2 in Malaysia after extra time. Japan was thus qualified for the finals tournament in France and for the first time ever for the finals.

In the World Cup tournament, Japan was eliminated in the preliminary round in a group of three newcomers to the World Cup. In the first group game against ex-world champions Argentina and in the second game, newcomer to the World Cup, Croatia lost 1-0. In the last group game against World Cup newcomers Jamaica , Masashi Nakayama scored the first goal for Japan to make it 2-1, but it stayed that way.

World Championship 2002

Japan and South Korea automatically qualified as co-hosts for the first World Cup in Asia . Both had initially submitted applications independently of each other, as did Mexico. In order not to offend either of them, FIFA decided to entrust the formerly hostile nations with the joint hosting. In the preliminary round, Japan won their first point by beating Belgium 2-2 and their first victory in a World Cup game by beating Russia 1-0 . With a 2-0 win over Tunisia , Japan won the group. In the round of 16 they lost 1-0 to Turkey , which was back for the first time since 1954 and ended up third.

World Championship 2006

Japanese and Australian fans before the opening game

In qualifying for the second World Cup in Germany , Japan qualified directly for the second round by bye. There Japan was able to prevail as group winners in Group 3 of the Asia zone with six wins and only one goal against Oman , India and Singapore . The third round was against Iran , Bahrain and North Korea . With five wins and only one defeat, Iran, which also qualified, took first place.

In Germany, the first group game against Australia was lost 3-1. The Japanese had led up to the 84th minute, but then had to accept three goals. Against Croatia , a goalless draw won a point, which goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi secured when he saved a penalty from Darijo Srna . In the last group game against the compatriots of their coach Zico , defending champion and record world champion Brazil , the Japanese took a 1-0 lead after the Brazilians had not conceded a goal in World Cup games for 461 minutes, but had to accept four goals and were with the 1: 4 group last.

World Championship 2010

Japanese supermarket during the World Cup

In qualifying for the first World Cup in Africa , Japan qualified directly for the third round by bye. In Group 2 of the Asia zone, Japan met Bahrain, Oman and Thailand . Japan and Bahrain made it into the next round. Japan was second behind Australia and the first team to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa after hosting them . The other group opponents were again Bahrain as well as Qatar and Uzbekistan , against whom the early qualification succeeded in the third from last group game.

In the first World Cup final, Cameroon was defeated 1-0 , then they lost 1-0 to the Netherlands , but finished second with a 3-1 win against Denmark . In the round of 16 against Paraguay , both teams failed to score in 120 minutes, so the decision had to be made on penalties . While all five Paraguayans converted, Yūichi Komano only hit the bar; the fifth Japanese then no longer had to compete.

World Championship 2014

As four years earlier, the Japanese were the first team to qualify after the hosts . As a seeded team, they came straight to the third qualifying round and took second place behind Uzbekistan in front of North Korea and Tajikistan , thus reaching the fourth round. In this they were group winners before Australia, which also qualified, Jordan , which later failed in the intercontinental playoffs to Uruguay , and Oman and Iraq . Japan secured early qualification in the penultimate game with a 1-1 draw against Australia, which Keisuke Honda secured with a converted penalty in the first minute of stoppage time.

At the World Cup tournament in Brazil , Japan, which had started with high hopes because it won the Asian Cup in 2011 and had some players in the top European leagues in its squad, only finished fourth in Group C. After a 1: 2 opening defeat against the Ivory Coast , the 0-0 win against Greece sealed the preliminary round. In the last group game they lost 4-1 to Colombia . After the end, national coach Alberto Zaccheroni resigned from his position.

World Championship 2018

In qualifying , the team, which has been coached by Vahid Halilhodžić since March 2015, faced Afghanistan , Cambodia , Singapore and Syria in the second round . Japan won seven games and drew once. The Japanese were thus qualified as group winners for the third round. Here Australia , Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates , Iraq and Thailand were the opponents. Japan qualified as group winners for the World Cup finals on the penultimate match day of the third qualifying round by beating Australia. After the preparations for the World Cup did not go optimally, national coach Halilhodžić was dismissed and replaced by Akira Nishino .

At the finals, they won their first game against Colombia 2-1. They benefited from the fact that in the third minute Colombian Carlos Sánchez received the red card after deliberately handball in the penalty area to prevent a goal and Shinji Kagawa converted the penalty that was also imposed. Although the Colombians managed to equalize in the 39th minute, the Japanese used their numerical superiority to score the winning goal in the second half. In the second game against Senegal they fell behind twice, but were able to equalize it again and again. Before the last game against Poland , which already had no chance of reaching the round of 16 after two defeats, they were equal on points and goals with the Senegalese, but had received fewer yellow cards, so the fair play rating for the Japanese spoke. Despite this uncertain situation, coach Nishino used several reservists in the last game and was then lucky that the Senegalese and the Japanese lost their last game 1-0 and nothing improved in the fair play standings in favor of the Africans . Japan was the first team in the history of the World Cup to reach the knockout round through fair play.

Here they met Belgium , which had scored the most goals in the group matches. Surprisingly, the Japanese were able to take a 2-0 lead after a goalless half shortly after the half-time break with goals from Genki Haraguchi and Takashi Inui . In the 69th minute, however, Belgium's record international player Jan Vertonghen scored the next goal and in the 74th minute Marouane Fellaini, who had been substituted on nine minutes earlier, equalized. When the Japanese pushed for the winning goal in stoppage time, they conceded the goal after a counterattack to make the final score 2: 3 through the substitute Nacer Chadli . Japan was eliminated for the third time in the round of 16, but was able to improve by five places in the all-time ranking.

player

Ranking of the Japanese World Cup players with the most appearances

01. Makoto Hasebe , Eiji Kawashima and Yūto Nagatomo - 11 out of 3 tournaments

04. Keisuke Honda , Hidetoshi Nakata , Shinji Okazaki and Maya Yoshida - 10 out of 3 tournaments

08. Yūya Ōsako - 9 in 3 tournaments

09. Junichi Inamoto , Shinji Kagawa , Hotaru Yamaguchi - 8 out of 3 tournaments

12. Yūji Nakazawa and Yoshito Ōkubo - 7 in 2 tournaments

14. Yasuhito Endo , Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi , Tsuneyasu Miyamoto and Shinji Ono - 6 in 2 and 3 (Ono) tournaments respectively

18. Yūichi Komano , Kōji Nakata , Alessandro Santos and Atsushi Yanagisawa - 5 in 2 tournaments

Ranking of the Japanese World Cup players with the most World Cup goals

01. Keisuke Honda - 4 goals

02. Junichi Inamoto and Takashi Inui - 2 goals

World Cup captains

• 1998: Masami Ihara
• 2002: Ryūzō Morioka (1st game), Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (2nd to 4th game)
• 2006: Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (1st and 2nd game), Yūji Nakazawa (3rd game)
• 2010, 2014, 2018: Makoto Hasebe , Eiji Kawashima (3rd game 2018)

Note: Makoto Hasebe is the only Asian player to have been the captain of 3 World Cup tournaments.

Share of players playing abroad in the World Cup squad

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
1998 (3)	0
2002 (4)	4 (2 in England, 1 in Italy, 1 in the Netherlands)	Junichi Inamoto (4), Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (0); Hidetoshi Nakata (4); Shinji Ono (4)
2006 (3)	6 (1 in Germany, 2 in England, 1 in France, 1 in Scotland, 1 in Switzerland)	Naohiro Takahara (3); Hidetoshi Nakata (3), Junichi Inamoto (2); Masashi Ōguro (3); Shunsuke Nakamura (3); Kōji Nakata (1)
2010 (4)	4 (1 in Germany, 1 in France, 1 in Italy, 1 in Russia)	Makoto Hasebe (4); Daisuke Matsui (4); Takayuki Morimoto (0), Keisuke Honda (4)
2014 (3)	12 (1 in Belgium, 7 in Germany, 2 in England, 2 in Italy)	Eiji Kawashima (3); Makoto Hasebe (3), Hiroshi Kiyotake (1), Shinji Okazaki (3), Yūya Ōsako (2), Gōtoku Sakai (0), Hiroki Sakai (0), Atsuto Uchida (3); Shinji Kagawa (3), Maya Yoshida (3); Keisuke Honda (3), Yūto Nagatomo (3)
2018 (4)	15 (7 in Germany, 2 in England, 2 in France, 1 in Mexico, 2 in Spain, 1 in Turkey)	Genki Haraguchi (3), Makoto Hasebe (4), Shinji Kagawa (3), Yoshinori Muto (1), Yūya Ōsako (4), Gōtoku Sakai (1), Takashi Usami (2); Shinji Okazaki (3), Maya Yoshida (4); Eiji Kawashima (4), Hiroki Sakai (4); Keisuke Honda (3); Takashi Inui (4), Gaku Shibasaki (4); Yūto Nagatomo (4)

Players banned from World Championships

• 1998: Eisuke Nakanishi received the second yellow card in the second group game and was suspended for the last game against Jamaica.
• 2006: Captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto received the second yellow card in the second group game and was suspended for the last game against Brazil.

Games

Japan has played 21 World Cup games so far. Of these, five were won, eleven lost and five ended in a draw. A game had to be extended because a winner had to be determined. Japan lost it on penalties . Japan have had four home games so far but have never faced a host. Japan met the defending champions once (2006 / Brazil), never the eventual world champions. Japan met newcomers twice: in 1998, when they were newcomers themselves, in Croatia and Jamaica. The most frequent opponents are Colombia, Croatia and Belgium with two games each. Japan has so far played against teams from all other confederations, but never against teams from its own confederation.

All World Cup games
No.	date	opponent	Result	occasion		venue	Remarks
1.	06/14/1998	Argentina	0: 1	Preliminary round	*	Toulouse ( FRA )
2.	06/20/1998	Croatia	0: 1	Preliminary round	*	Nantes ( FRA )
3.	06/26/1998	Jamaica	1: 2	Preliminary round	*	Lyon ( FRA )	First international match against Jamaica
4th	06/04/2002	Belgium	2: 2	Preliminary round	H	Saitama
5.	06/09/2002	Russia	1-0	Preliminary round	H	Yokohama	First international match against Russia
6th	06/14/2002	Tunisia	2-0	Preliminary round	H	Osaka
7th	06/18/2002	Turkey	0: 1	Round of 16	H	Rifu
8th.	06/12/2006	Australia	1: 3	Preliminary round	*	Kaiserslautern ( DEU )
9.	06/18/2006	Croatia	0-0	Preliminary round	*	Nuremberg ( DEU )
10.	06/22/2006	Brazil	1: 4	Preliminary round	*	Dortmund ( DEU )
11.	06/14/2010	Cameroon	1-0	Preliminary round	*	Bloemfontein ( ZAF )
12.	06/19/2010	Netherlands	0: 1	Preliminary round	*	Durban ( ZAF )
13.	06/24/2010	Denmark	3: 1	Preliminary round	*	Rustenburg ( ZAF )
14th	06/29/2010	Paraguay	0: 0 n.v. 3: 5 i. E.	Round of 16	*	Pretoria ( ZAF )
15th	06/14/2014	Ivory Coast	1: 2	Preliminary round	*	Recife ( BRA )
16.	06/19/2014	Greece	0-0	Preliminary round	*	Natal ( BRA )
17th	06/24/2014	Colombia	1: 4	Preliminary round	*	Cuiabá ( BRA )	Last game under Alberto Zaccheroni
18th	06/19/2018	Colombia	2: 1	Group game	*	Saransk ( RUS )
19th	06/24/2018	Senegal	2: 2	Group game	*	Yekaterinburg ( RUS )
20th	06/28/2018	Poland	0: 1	Group game	*	Volgograd ( RUS )
21st	07/02/2018	Belgium	2: 3	Round of 16	*	Rostov-on-Don ( RUS )

The Japanese team achieved their highest victories in World Cup tournaments against the following countries:

•  Denmark : Preliminary round 2010 - 3-1 (only win against Denmark)
•  Colombia : Preliminary round 2018 - 2-1 (only win against Colombia)
•  Russia : Preliminary round 2002 - 1-0 (only game against Russia)
•  Tunisia : preliminary round 2002 - 2-0

The Japanese team suffered their biggest defeats in World Cup tournaments against the following countries:

•  Belgium : Round of 16 2018 - 3-2 (also a 0-1 in a friendly)
•  Jamaica : Preliminary round 1998 - 2-1 (only loss to Jamaica)
•  Colombia : preliminary round 2014 - 1: 4
•  Croatia : Preliminary round 1998 - 1-0 (only defeat against Croatia)
•  Poland : Preliminary round 2018 - 0: 1 (only defeat against Poland)
•  Turkey : Round of 16 2002 - 1-0 (only loss to Turkey)

See also

• Football World - Statistics - Japan on fifa.com
• Japan Women's National Football Team / World Championships

References and footnotes

1. ↑ Lost one game on penalties .
2. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games. See: All-time FIFA World Cup Ranking 1930-2014 (PDF; 200 kB)
3. ↑ 2 of them in the second Bundesliga