The 2023

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 103rd 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103回全日本サッカー選手権大会)) was the 103rd edition of the annually contested cup, starting on 20 May. The format for 2023 did not present any changes from the previous edition. It featured 88 teams representing the prefectural football associations,

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yasud ...

and

Japan Football League The , also known as simply the JFL, is the 4th tier of the Japanese association football league system, positioned beneath the three divisions of the J.League. The league features fully professional teams that hold J.League 100 Year Plan club sta ...

. JFL's

Honda FC commonly known as is a Japanese professional football club based in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. They currently play in the Japan Football League, the country's 4th tier of semi-professional league football. History The club was founded as Honda M ...

was once again chosen to be the annually specially designated amateur club.

Ventforet Kofu is a Japanese professional football club from Kōfu in Yamanashi Prefecture. The team currently competes in the J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football, hosting their home matches in the JIT Recycle Ink Stadium, located in Kōf ...

were the defending champions, after a

cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

story for the J2 club saw them qualify for the final, which they won on penalties against

Sanfrecce Hiroshima Sanfrecce Hiroshima () is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Hiroshima. The club competes in the J1 League, top flight of the Japanese football league system. Sanfrecce is one of the most successful clubs in Ja ...

, after a 1–1 draw in regulation time, but were eliminated by

Vissel Kobe is a Japanese professional football club based in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. They are currently the J1 League champions. The club's home stadium is Noevir Stad ...

in the round of 16.

Qualifying rounds

As only J1 and J2 League clubs qualify directly for the first round, teams from outside of it who want to qualify to the Emperor's Cup (exception being made to the JFA-seeded team), had to, as usual, undergo a prefectural qualification, with regulations and schedules varying from one association to another. In total, there are 47 prefectural cup qualifications, with the winners of each prefectural cup having earned their right to play in the Emperor's Cup, with all of them assigned to start the competition in the first round.

Participating clubs

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

All 18 teams playing in the

2023 J1 League The 2023 J1 League, also known as the for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st season of the J1 League, the top Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. This was the ninth season of J1 League aft ...

entered in the second round.

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yasud ...

All 22 teams playing in the

2023 J2 League The 2023 J2 League, also known as the for sponsorship reasons, was the 25th season of the J2 League, the second-tier Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1999. Overview This was the last season ...

entered in the second round.

Amateur designated team

One team selected from the

. It entered in the first round.

Prefectural tournaments

All the 47 prefectural tournaments winners. They all entered in the first round. * Note: In the sections below, club tiers (league levels) are presented as follows: ** ''National:'' (1):

; (2):

; (3):

J3 League or simply J3 is the third division of . It was established in 2013 as the third-tier professional association football league in Japan under the organization of J.League. The league is known as the for sponsorship reasons. The third-tier nation ...

; (4):

** ''Regional (senior):'' (5): Regional Leagues 1st Divs.; (6): Regional Leagues 2nd Divs. ** ''Prefectural (senior):'' (7): Prefectural Leagues 1st Divs. ** ''Regional (university):'' (UL): University Regional Leagues ** ''Others'' (?): Below the cited club tiers, unknown or not affiliated with any league.

Calendar

The schedule from the first round to the quarter-finals was announced on 20 December 2022. The semi-finals and the final did not have its dates released 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 ...

, as uncertainties around the schedule of the

2023 AFC Asian Cup The 2023 AFC Asian Cup was the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It involved 24 national teams after its expansion in 20 ...

left doubts about possible reschedule of one or more rounds of the Emperor's Cup. The decision was also made to avoid schedule conflict for teams whose squads would have one or more players participating in the competition.

Schedule

First round

The match pairings was decided on 22 March 2023. Except for

, who was granted a bye from prefectural qualifications due to their "amateur designated team" status, no other club had yet qualified to the tournament when the draw was conducted.

Second round

All the 2023 J1 and J2 League clubs enter the competition in this round. Most of these professional clubs hosted their matches in their own prefecture. However, as the number of teams from these leagues combined does not match the amount of host teams required, some of these teams had to play their matches away from home. These specific away teams either finished between the 15th to 20th place on last season's J2 or got promoted from the J3 League for the 2023 season, and played their ties against teams that finished between the 7th and 14th place on last season's J2.

Third round

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Top scorers

References

External links

Tournament outline
JFA.jp
Schedule and results
JFA.jp

JFA.jp

JFA.jp {{2023–24 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 ...

2023 in Japanese football