Japan at the FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
Japan have appeared in the finals of the FIFA World Cup on six occasions, the first being in 1998 where they lost all three group games and finished in 31st position. Masashi Nakayama scored Japan's first ever goal in a World Cup Finals against Jamaica on 26 June 1998 in a 2-1 defeat.[1] Keisuke Honda becomes the first Japanese player to score in three world cups: 2010, 2014, 2018.[2]
They made their sixth appearance at the finals in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.[3][4] Japan became the first ever Asian nation to beat a side from South America, after they won 2-1 against Colombia in the group stage. The team made it to the Round of 16 (the first knock-out round) but lost to Belgium, 3-2.
FIFA World Cup record
| FIFA World Cup finals record | Qualifications record | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosts / Year | Result | Position | GP | W | D* | L | GS | GA | GP | W | D | L | GS | GA | |
 | Did not enter | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} |
— | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
 | Withdrew | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} | Suspended from FIFA | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
 | Did not qualify | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | ||||||||
 | Did not enter | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
 | Did not qualify | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||
 | Did not enter | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
 | Did not qualify | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | ||||||||
 |
4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 4 | |||||||||
 |
4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | |||||||||
 |
4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | |||||||||
|
8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 5 | |||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} |
6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 3 | |||||||||
 |
13 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 35 | 6 | |||||||||
| Group stage | 31st | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 51 | 12 | |
.svg.png){kind=small}  | Round of 16 | 9th | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Group stage | 28th | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 5 | |
 | Round of 16 | 9th | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 23 | 9 | |
 | Group Stage | 29th | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 30 | 8 | |
 | Round of 16 | 15th | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 18 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 44 | 7 | |
 | To be determined | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| Total | 6/21 | 9th | 17 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 20 | 29 | 120 | 68 | 26 | 26 | 247 | 85 | |
By match
| World Cup | Round | Opponent | Score | Result | Scorers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Group Stage | | 0–1 | L | |
 | 0–1 | L | |||
 | 1–2 | L | Nakayama | ||
| 2002 | Group Stage | .svg.png){kind=small} | 2–2 | D | Suzuki, Inamoto |
| 1–0 | W | Inamoto | ||
 | 2–0 | W | Morishima, H. Nakata | ||
| Round of 16 |  | 0–1 | L | ||
| 2006 | Group Stage |  | 1–3 | L | Nakamura |
| 0–0 | D | |||
| 1–4 | L | Tamada | ||
| 2010 | Group Stage |  | 1–0 | W | Honda |
 | 0–1 | L | |||
 | 3–1 | W | Honda, Endō, Okazaki | ||
| Round of 16 | .svg.png){kind=small} | 0–0 (a.e.t.), 3–5 (p) | D | ||
| 2014 | Group Stage |  | 1–2 | L | Honda |
 | 0–0 | D | |||
 | 1–4 | L | Okazaki | ||
| 2018 | Group Stage | | 2–1 | W | Kagawa , Ōsako |
 | 2–2 | D | Inui, Honda | ||
 | 0–1 | L | |||
| Round of 16 | | 2–3 | L | Haraguchi, Inui | |
Record Players
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| No. | Name | Matches | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Makoto Hasebe | 11 | 2010, 2014 and 2018 |
| Eiji Kawashima | 11 | 2010, 2014 and 2018 | |
| Yuto Nagatomo | 11 | 2010, 2014 and 2018 | |
| 4 | Hidetoshi Nakata | 10 | 1998, 2002 and 2006 |
| Shinji Okazaki | 10 | 2010, 2014 and 2018 | |
| Keisuke Honda | 10 | 2010, 2014 and 2018 | |
| 7 | Junichi Inamoto | 8 | 2002, 2006 and 2010 |
| 8 | Yuji Nakazawa | 7 | 2006 and 2010 |
| Yoshito Ōkubo | 7 | 2010 and 2014 | |
| Maya Yoshida | 7 | 2014 and 2018 |
Top Goalscorers
| No. | Name | Goals | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Keisuke Honda | 4 | 2010 (2), 2014 (1), and 2018 (1) |
| 2 | Junichi Inamoto | 2 | 2002 |
| Shinji Okazaki | 2 | 2010 and 2014 | |
| Takashi Inui | 2 | 2018 |
References
- ↑ "2-1 victory over Japan lifts the Reggae Boyz". Sports Illustrated. 19 September 1998. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
- ↑ "Super sub Honda makes history with goal against Senegal". Kyodo News. 25 June 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
- ↑ "Zaccheroni: It could be better, but it could be worse too". FIFA.com. 6 December 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ↑ "Your guide to Group C with Colombia, Ivory Coast, Greece and Japan". Daily Mail. 6 December 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
External links
Japan Squads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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