The following is a list of the

Japan national football team The , nicknamed the , represents Japan in men's international Association football, football. It is controlled by the Japan Football Association (JFA), the governing body for football in Japan. Japan was not a major football force until the e ...

's competitive records and statistics.

Player records

: :''Players in bold are still active with Japan.''

Most capped players

Yasuhito Endō against Bahrain June 22 2008

Top goalscorers

Other records

''Updated 29 March 2022'' *Youngest player : Daisuke Ichikawa, 17 years and 322 days old, 1 April 1998 against *Youngest goalscorer : Shinji Kagawa, 19 years and 206 days old, 9 October 2008 against *Youngest captain : Gen Shoji, 24 years and 363 days old, 9 December 2017 EAFF E-1 Championship *Oldest player :

Eiji Kawashima is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Ligue 1 club Strasbourg. Kawashima played in Japan for Omiya Ardija, Nagoya Grampus Eight and Kawasaki Frontale before joining Lierse S.K. in Belgium in 2010. He then pla ...

, 39 years and 9 days old, 29 March 2022 against *Oldest goalscorer : Masashi Nakayama, 33 years and 326 days old, 15 August 2001 against *Oldest captain :

Shigeo Yaegashi was a Japanese football player and manager. He played for Japan national team. Club career Yaegashi was born in Daejeon, Japan on March 24, 1933, but raised in Hanamaki. After playing at Chuo University, he moved to Waseda University. After g ...

, 35 years and 203 days old, 13 October 1968

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

*Most hat-trick : 8, Kunishige Kamamoto *Most goal in one match : 6, Kunishige Kamamoto, 27 September 1967 against : 6,

Kazuyoshi Miura , often known simply as Kazu (nicknamed "King Kazu"), is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters on loan from Yokohama FC. He played for the Japan national team from 1990 t ...

, 22 June 1997 against *Most goal in calendar year : 18,

, 1997

Manager records

Most appearances

Manager achievements

Team records

''Updated 23 January 2015'' ; Biggest victory : 15–0 vs Philippines, 27 September 1967 ; Heaviest defeat : 15–2 vs Philippines, 10 May 1917 ; Most consecutive victories : 8, 8 August 1970 vs. Indonesia – 17 December 1970 vs. India : 8, 14 March 1993 vs. United States – 5 May 1995 vs.

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

: 8, 26 May 1996 vs. Yugoslavia – 12 December 1996 vs.

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

; Most consecutive matches without defeat : 20, 24 June 2010 vs. Denmark – 11 November 2011 vs. Tajikistan ; Most consecutive defeats : 6, 10 June 1956 vs. South Korea – 28 December 1958 vs.

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

; Most consecutive matches without victory : 11, 13 August 1976 vs. Burma – 15 June 1976 vs. South Korea ; Most consecutive draws : 4, 13 August 1976 vs. Burma – 20 August 1976 vs. Malaysia ; Most consecutive matches scoring : 13, 19 December 1966 vs. Singapore – 16 October 1969 vs.

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

: 13, 7 February 2004 vs. Malaysia – 24 July 2004 vs. Thailand ; Most consecutive matches without scoring : 6, 18 June 1989 vs. Hong Kong – 31 July 1990 vs. North Korea ; Most consecutive matches conceding a goal : 28, 6 November 1960 vs. South Korea – 11 December 1966 vs. Iran ; Most consecutive matches without conceding a goal : 7, 19 November 2003 vs. Cameroon – 18 February 2004 vs. Oman

Competitive record

Champions Runners-up Third place Fourth place :''*Denotes draws includes knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out. Red border indicates that the tournament was hosted on home soil. Gold, silver, bronze backgrounds indicate 1st, 2nd and 3rd finishes respectively. Bold text indicates best finish in tournament.''

FIFA World Cup

AFC Asian Cup

Copa América

Japan is the first team from outside the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

to participate in the

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

, having been invited to the

1999 Copa América The 1999 Copa América was a football tournament held in Paraguay, from 29 June to 18 July. It was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body. There was no qualifying for the final tournament. Mexico and Japan were invited to ...

. Japan was also invited to the 2011 tournament and initially accepted the invitation. However, following the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

, the JFA later withdrew on 16 May 2011, citing the difficulty of releasing some Japanese players from European teams to play as replacements. On the next day,

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

invited

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

to replace Japan in the competition. On 16 August 2013, CONMEBOL president

Eugenio Figueredo Eugenio Hermes Figueredo Aguerre (born 10 March 1932 in Santa Lucía, Uruguay) is a Uruguayan and American association football executive and former footballer. In May 2015, he was banned by FIFA Ethics Committee. Biography As a footballer, Fi ...

announced that Japan was invited to the

2015 Copa América The 2015 Copa América was the 44th edition of the Copa América, the main international football tournament for national teams in South America, and took place in Chile between 11 June and 4 July 2015. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, ...

. However, Japan later declined the invitation due to scheduling problems. On 14 May 2018, CONMEBOL announced that Japan, alongside Qatar, would be the two invited teams for the

2019 Copa América The 2019 Copa América was the 46th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. It was held in Brazil and took place between 14 June and 7 ...

FIFA Confederations Cup

Olympic Games

Since 1992, the Olympic team has been drawn from a squad with a maximum of three players over 23 years age, and the achievements of this team are not generally regarded as part of the national team's records, nor are the statistics credited to the players' international records.

Asian Games

:''Football at the Asian Games has been an under-23 tournament since 2002.''

Head-to-head record

The list shown below shows the

head-to-head record. ''As of 5 December 2022.''

Summary

AFC

''As of 27 July 2022''

CAF

''As of 14 June 2022''

CONCACAF

''As of 27 November 2022''

CONMEBOL

''As of 27 September 2022''

OFC

''As of 12 October 2021''

UEFA

''As of 5 December 2022''

References

{{Japan national football team National association football team records and statistics