The Japan national American football team represents

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in international

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

competitions. The team is controlled by the

Japan American Football Association The Japan American Football Association oversees junior high school, high school, collegiate, club, and corporate American football teams throughout Japan. Since 1984, the JAFA has organized and sponsored the Rice Bowl, a championship game played ...

, and has been one of the world's strongest international teams since it began participating regularly in international tournaments in the 1990s, and currently possesses the second most

American Football World Cup The IFAF World Championship of American Football (also known as the IFAF World Cup) is an international gridiron competition held every four years and contested by teams representing member nations. The competition is run by the International Fe ...

s (1999, 2003). Japan won the inaugural

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

IFAF World Championship The IFAF World Championship of American Football (also known as the IFAF World Cup) is an international gridiron competition held every four years and contested by teams representing member nations. The competition is run by the International Fe ...

and won again in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. In

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

they advanced to the final, losing to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

23–20 in overtime. In 2010 Japan beat

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

24–14 in the inaugural Germany-Japan Bowl. In February 2011, Japan bested

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

(76–0) to qualify for the 2011 IFAF World Championship.

IFAF World Championship record

2011 IFAF World Championship Roster

2014

Preparing for the qualification match for the

2015 IFAF World Championship The 2015 IFAF World Championship was the fifth instance of the IFAF World Championship, an international American football tournament. The United States hosted the tournament. Seven teams had confirmed their participation for the tournament in Ca ...

, the

JAFA Jafa is a slang term (sometimes pejorative) for a resident of Auckland, New Zealand. It is an acronym, standing for ''Just Another Fucking Aucklander''. This prejudice against Aucklanders started to appear around the 1900s, when Premier Richard J ...

scheduled an international friendly match against

on April 12, 2014 at

Kawasaki Stadium is a stadium in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. The stadium was opened in 1952 and had a capacity of 30,000 people, but was demolished and rebuilt in 2003 as an American football venue and is now the home of the Fujitsu Frontiers of the X-League. ...

Kawasaki, Kanagawa is a Cities of Japan, city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the List of cities in Japan, eight ...

. 85 players were initially chosen for the national team on March 11 which was whittled down to the required 45-men roster before April 12. Before a crowd of 1,889, Japan defeated Germany 38–0 in a strong defensive showing for the Japanese which limited Germany to only 135 yards of total offense, as well as causing four turnovers and two sacks, the latter of which was all in the second half. Before going against the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, Japan made 5 changes in their roster, replacing WRs Ryoma Hagiyama and Naoki Maeda with Takeshi Akiyama and Junpei Yoshimoto, RB Keita Takanohashi with Takashi Miyako, LB Yuki Ikeda with Yoshiki Tanaka, and S Toshinari Masatani with Takeshi Miyake. Against a young Philippine team that was in its first year in the

IFAF The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) is the international governing body of gridiron associations. The IFAF oversees the IFAF World Championship of American Football, which is held every four years. The IFAF became a pro ...

, the Japanese showed

no quarter The phrase no quarter was generally used during military conflict to imply combatants would not be taken prisoner, but killed. According to some modern American dictionaries, a person who is given no quarter is "not treated kindly" or "treated ...

, scoring on every offensive possession as well as holding the Philippines to only 1st down en route to an 86–0 victory, the 2nd biggest win in the national team's history. With the win, Japan, along with

, (which defeated Kuwait in the other qualification match 69-7) qualified for the

tournament in Canton, Ohio, United States.

2015

Due to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

dropping out of the tournament for personal team reasons, Japan was granted a bye on the scheduled match which was supposed to be on July 9 and in turn would play the winner of the Mexico-United States match on July 12. In their first match of the tournament, Japan, despite a strong defensive showing in the first half that included 2 interceptions and 29-yd field goal block, eventually lost to the

18–43. In their 2nd match, Japan defeated

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

35–7 with a strong effort on offense and defense. The win ensured the Japanese a rematch with the United States for the Gold Medal. Team Japan would lose to the United States 12–59 in what is the national team's largest loss in history.

Notes

External links

*
Japan American football national team Official website
{{Collegiate American Football in Japan navbox American football in Japan Men's national American football teams