The was the 2016 edition of the annual Japanese national cup tournament, which was held from 27 August 2016 to its final on 1 January 2017.

Kashima Antlers are a football club in Kashima, Ibaraki, currently playing in the J1 League, top tier of Japanese professional football leagues. The name ''Antlers'' is derived from the city name, Kashima, which literally means "deer island". The club has fi ...

won their fifth title after a 2–1 defeat of

Kawasaki Frontale is a Japanese professional football club based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium, in Nakahara W ...

in the final after extra time. Kashima Antlers would have qualified for the group stage of the

2017 AFC Champions League The 2017 AFC Champions League was the 36th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 15th under the current AFC Champions League title. Urawa Red Diamonds defeated Al-Hilal ...

as the winner, but as they had already earned a spot by winning the

2016 J1 League The 2016 Meiji Yasuda J1 League (2016 明治安田生命J1リーグ) season was the 51st season of top-flight football in Japan, and the 24th since the establishment of the J.League in 1993. For a five-year period starting in 2015, the J.Leag ...

, Kawasaki Frontale achieved it by way of finishing third in the 2016 J1 League.

Calendar

Participating clubs

88 clubs competed in the tournament. Eleven clubs placed 5th through 15th from the

2015 J1 League The 2015 Meiji Yasuda J1 League (2015 明治安田生命J1リーグ) season was the 50th season of top-flight football in Japan, and the 23rd since the establishment of the J.League in 1993. For a five-year period starting in 2015, the J.Leag ...

and the

2015 J2 League The 2015 Meiji Yasuda J2 League (2015 明治安田生命J2リーグ) season was the 44th season of the second-tier club football in Japan and the 17th season since the establishment of J2 League. The season began on 8 March 2015 and ended on 23 ...

champions received a bye to the second round of the tournament; 2016 AFC Champions League participants entered in the fourth round. The remaining teams entered in the first round.

Schedule and results

The matches for the first three rounds were published on 27 June 2016.

First round

''All times given in UTC+09:00

Second round

Third round

Fourth round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

References

External links

Japan Football Association page on the Emperor's Cup
(Japanese) {{2017 in Asian Football (AFC) Emperor's Cup

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or also Japan FA Cup is a Japanese football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football match in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formation of the J.League, Japan Football League and their predecessor, J ...

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...