The 2021

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 ...

(Emperor's Cup JFA 101st Japan Football Championship (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 天皇杯 JFA 第101回全日本サッカー選手権大会)) was the 101st annual Japanese national football cup tournament, which began on 22 May 2021 and ended with the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

on 19 December that year. Following the compressed format of the 2020 tournament, the 2021 Emperor's Cup was restored to its usual format, featuring 90 teams representing prefectural football associations as well as the J1 and J2 Leagues.

Verspah Oita is a Japanese football club based in the city of Ōita, capital of Ōita Prefecture. They currently play in the Japan Football League, the fourth tier of Japanese league football. The 2025 season is their 14th consecutive season in the JFL. H ...

was also awarded a seeded entry as the JFA's annually designated amateur club.

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

were the defending champions. They were eliminated by

Oita Trinita is a Japanese football club located in Ōita, Capital of Ōita Prefecture. They currently play in J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football. Name origin The club's name, ''Trinita'', is the Italian translation of the word ' ...

in the

semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

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 ...

won their eighth title and qualified for the

2022 AFC Champions League The 2022 AFC Champions League was the 41st edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 20th under the current AFC Champions League title. This edition was the last in an all-y ...

group stage.

Calendar

The schedule was announced on 2 April 2021.

Participating clubs

There are 90 clubs compete in the tournament. The representatives for the prefectures of Tottori and Kumamoto had to be determined by the local FAs after

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

countermeasures made it impossible to continue the prefectural qualification tournaments. Note

Bracket

Sourc
Tournament table (Official website in Japanese)

First round

The match between Tochigi City and the representatives of Yamanashi Prefecture, originally intended to be Yamanashi Gakuin University Pegasus and scheduled for 22 May, was postponed the day before by the

Japan Football Association The Japan Football Association (JFA, ) is the Sport governing body, governing body responsible for the administration of Association football, football, futsal, beach soccer and Esports, efootball in Japan. It is responsible for the Japan national ...

after Pegasus fielded an ineligible

cup-tied In association football, a player who has appeared for a football club during a knockout cup but subsequently transfers to another club is ineligible to play for the new club in the remainder of that season's cup competition. Such a player is sa ...

player in the

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

Cup final. Note that

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

operates functionally as YGU's second team and competed in the Yamanashi tournament alongside the YGU third team, known as Orions; the first team YGU Braves also competed in Emperor's Cup qualifiers in

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. Subsequent to an investigation, the JFA decided on 24 May that YGU Pegasus would be disqualified and awarded their spot to Nirasaki Astros, their opponents in the Yamanashi final. Also postponed was the match between Tonan Maebashi and Juntendo University after an individual affiliated with Juntendo tested positive for

. The match was eventually rescheduled for 5 June.

Second round

Third round

The third round schedule was announced on 17 June 2021.

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

A draw was held on 24 September 2021 to determine the matchups of the quarter-final stage and onwards.

Nagoya Grampus ; formerly known as is a Japanese association football club that plays in the J1 League, and have for all but one season since the inauguration of the league, following promotion from the J2 League in 2017. Based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture an ...

was guaranteed to have home advantage in quarter-finals as they advanced to the quarter-finals of the

2021 AFC Champions League The 2021 AFC Champions League was the 40th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 19th under the current AFC Champions League title. Al-Hilal won their fourth title by ...

, while

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 ...

and

were drawn as the away team in quarter-finals as they could not guarantee their home stadium at the moment.

Semi-finals

Final

References

External links

Emperors Cup 2021
JFA.jp {{2021 in Asian football (AFC) Emperor's Cup

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

2021 in Japanese football