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.

For the women soccer team, see Japan at the FIFA Women's World Cup.

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] 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
1930Did not enter No qualification
1934 Did not enter
1938Withdrew Withdrew
1950Suspended from FIFA Suspended from FIFA
1954Did not qualify 201137
1958Did not enter Did not enter
1962Did not qualify 200214
1966Did not enter Did not enter
1970Did not qualify 402248
1974 410354
1978 401305
1982 420242
1986 8512155
1990 623173
1994 13931356
1998Group stage31st300314 159515112
2002Round of 169th421153 Qualified as hosts
2006Group stage28th301227 121101255
2010Round of 169th421142 14842239
2014Group stage29th301226 14833308
2018Round of 1615th411267 181332447
2022To be determined To be determined
2026
TotalRound of 166/21215511202912068262624785

By match
World Cup Round Opponent Score Result Scorers
1998Group stage Argentina0–1L
 Croatia0–1L
 Jamaica1–2LNakayama
2002Group stage Belgium2–2DSuzuki, Inamoto
 Russia1–0WInamoto
 Tunisia2–0WMorishima, H. Nakata
Round of 16 Turkey0–1L
2006Group stage Australia1–3LNakamura
 Croatia0–0D
 Brazil1–4LTamada
2010Group stage Cameroon1–0WHonda
 Netherlands0–1L
 Denmark3–1WHonda, Endō, Okazaki
Round of 16 Paraguay0–0 (a.e.t.), 3–5 (p)D
2014Group stage Ivory Coast2–1LHonda
 Greece0–0D
 Colombia1–4LOkazaki
2018Group stage Colombia1–2WKagawa , Ōsako
 Senegal2–2DInui, Honda
 Poland0–1L
Round of 16 Belgium3–2LHaraguchi, Inui

Record players
Goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima played through Japan's eleven World Cup matches from 2010 to 2018.
Keisuke Honda is Japan's top scorer in World Cup history with four goals in three tournaments.
No. Name Matches World Cups
1 Makoto Hasebe112010, 2014 and 2018
Eiji Kawashima112010, 2014 and 2018
Yuto Nagatomo112010, 2014 and 2018
4 Hidetoshi Nakata101998, 2002 and 2006
Shinji Okazaki102010, 2014 and 2018
Keisuke Honda102010, 2014 and 2018
7Junichi Inamoto82002, 2006 and 2010
8 Yuji Nakazawa72006 and 2010
Yoshito Ōkubo72010 and 2014
Maya Yoshida72014 and 2018

Top goalscorers
No. Name Goals World Cups
1Keisuke Honda42010 (2), 2014 (1), and 2018 (1)
2 Junichi Inamoto22002
Shinji Okazaki22010 and 2014
Takashi Inui22018

References
  1. "2-1 victory over Japan lifts the Reggae Boyz". Sports Illustrated. 19 September 1998. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  2. "Super sub Honda makes history with goal against Senegal". Kyodo News. 25 June 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  3. "Zaccheroni: It could be better, but it could be worse too". FIFA.com. 6 December 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.