Team Overview

The Japan national football team (Japanese: サッカー日本代表, Hepburn: Sakkā Nihon Daihyō or Sakkā Nippon Daihyō), also known by the nickname Samurai Blue (Japanese: サムライ・ブルー, Hepburn: Samurai Burū), represents Japan in men's international football. It is controlled by the Japan Football Association (JFA), the governing body for football in Japan. Prior to the late 1980s, Japan's national football team was largely amateur, with the sport less popular domestically than baseball or sumo. Since the early 1990s, following the full professionalization of the sport, Japan has emerged as one of Asia's leading teams. The national team has qualified for every FIFA World Cup since 1998 (including an automatic berth as co-hosts of the 2002 tournament alongside South Korea), advancing to the knockout stage in 2002, 2010, 2018, and 2022. Japan has also won a record four Asian Cup titles, in 1992, 2000, 2004, and 2011. In addition, the team finished as runners-up in both the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2019 Asian Cup. Japan is one of only three teams from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to have reached the final of a senior FIFA men's competition, alongside Australia and Saudi Arabia.

Current Squad

No	Pos	Name	Club
1	1GK	Zion Suzuki	0
12	1GK	Keisuke Ōsako	0
23	1GK	Tomoki Hayakawa	0
2	2DF	Yukinari Sugawara	2
3	2DF	Shōgo Taniguchi	1
4	2DF	Kō Itakura	2
5	2DF	Yūto Nagatomo	4
16	2DF	Tsuyoshi Watanabe	0
20	2DF	Ayumu Seko	0
21	2DF	Hiroki Itō	1
22	2DF	Takehiro Tomiyasu	1
25	2DF	Junnosuke Suzuki	0
6	3MF	Wataru Endo	4
7	3MF	Ao Tanaka	8
8	3MF	Takefusa Kubo	7
10	3MF	Ritsu Dōan	11
13	3MF	Keito Nakamura	10
14	3MF	Junya Itō	15
15	3MF	Daichi Kamada	12
24	3MF	Kaishu Sano	0
9	4FW	Keisuke Gotō	0
11	4FW	Daizen Maeda	4
17	4FW	Yuito Suzuki	0
18	4FW	Ayase Ueda	16
19	4FW	Kōki Ogawa	11
26	4FW	Kento Shiogai	0