The was the 2018 edition of the annual Japanese national

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

cup tournament, which began on 26 May 2018 and ended with the final on 9 December 2018 at the

Saitama Stadium 2002 , the or simply , is a football stadium located in Midori-ku, Saitama, Japan. Currently, J1 League club Urawa Red Diamonds use this stadium for home games. It is the largest football-specific stadium in Japan and is one of the largest stadi ...

. The final was held earlier than the usual date of 1 January due to the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...

. The draw for the first four rounds was held on 29 March 2018. As a result of its win,

Urawa Red Diamonds The or simply Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ, ''Urawa Rezzu''), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, are a professional association football, football club in the city of Saitama (city), Saitama, part of t ...

automatically qualified to the group stage of the

2019 AFC Champions League The 2019 AFC Champions League was the 38th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament, organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 17th under the current AFC Champions League title. Al-Hilal defeated Urawa Red Diamo ...

Calendar

Participating clubs

88 clubs competed in the tournament. Clubs playing in the

2018 J1 League The 2018 J1 League, also known as the for sponsorship reasons, was the 26th season of J1 League, the top Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. This was fourth season of J1 League as renamed ...

and

2018 J2 League The 2018 Meiji Yasuda J2 League (2018 明治安田生命J2リーグ) season was the 47th season of the second-tier club football in Japan and the 20th season since the establishment of J2 League. Clubs The participating clubs are listed in the f ...

received a bye to the second round of the tournament. The remaining teams entered in the first round.

Results

First round

The first round matches were held on 26 and 27 May 2018.

Second round

The second round matches were held on 6 June 2018. ;Notes

Third round

The third round matches were held on 11 July and 22 August 2018. ;Notes

Fourth round

The fourth round matches were held on 22 August and 26 September 2018.

Quarter finals

The quarter-finals were held on 24 October 2018 and 21 November 2018.

Semi finals

The semi-finals were originally scheduled to be held on 16 December 2018. However, the semi-finals were rescheduled after

Kashima Antlers The are a professional association football, football club based in Kashima, Ibaraki, Japan. They currently play in the J1 League, the top tier of Japanese professional football leagues. The club has financial backing from Mercari, a Japanese ...

won the

2018 AFC Champions League The 2018 AFC Champions League was the 37th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 16th under the current AFC Champions League title. Kashima Antlers won the title for t ...

, which would have created a scheduling conflict with Kashima's participation in the

2018 FIFA Club World Cup The 2018 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2018 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament between ...

Final

The final was originally scheduled to be held on 24 December 2018. However, as it was the case for the semi-finals, it had to be rescheduled due to possible conflict with Kashima Antlers participation on the

References

External links

Japan Football Association page on the Emperor's Cup
(Japanese) {{2018 in Asian Football (AFC) Emperor's Cup

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or Japan FA Cup, and rebranded as The JFA Emperor's Cup from 2024 onwards, is a Japanese annual football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football tournament in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formatio ...

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...