Because of their proximity and similar sporting cultures,

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 ...

and

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 ...

are frequent rivals in a wide variety of international sports.

Football

National teams

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest cont ...

EAFF E-1 Football Championship EAFF E-1 Football Championship, known as the East Asian Football Championship from 2003 to 2010, and the EAFF East Asian Cup for the 2013 and 2015 editions, is a men's international football competition in East Asia for member nations of the East ...

Club

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

Lunar New Year Cup The Lunar New Year Cup, previously known as the Carlsberg Challenge or the Carlsberg Cup, is an annual invitational football tournament organised in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) since 1908. It is usually held on the firs ...

A3 Champions Cup A3 Champions Cup (also known as East Asian Champions Cup) was an annual football (soccer) tournament jointly organized by the China PR, Japan and Korea Republic football Association. It began in 2003, involving the league champions of China, Japan ...

Pan-Pacific Championship The Pan-Pacific Football Championship was an inter-confederation football tournament between teams from A-League (Australia and New Zealand), Chinese Super League (China), J. League (Japan), K-League (Korea), and Major League Soccer (United State ...

* JOMO Cup *

Japan and South Korea Women's League Championship Japan and South Korea Women's League Championship ( ja, 日韓女子リーグチャンピオンシップ, ko, 한일여자리그 챔피언십) was a women's association football competition between the clubs of Nadeshiko League ( Japan Women's Fo ...

Baseball

Volleyball

Ice hockey

Figure skating

Judo

South Korea and Japan has had a long history in judo, especially with the two nations' dominance in Asia. In recent times, the rivalries have been greatest in the men's half-lightweight, lightweight and middleweight categories. In the men's half-lightweight, rivalries stemmed to the quarter-final at the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, that featured Japan's Masashi Ebinuma and South Korea's Cho Jun-ho. The decision was first called in Cho's favor, and then recalled to hand the win to Ebinuma. It is one of the most controversial fights in Olympic judo. Ebinuma had dominated the weight division from

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, winning three world championships, before South Korean

An Baul An Ba-ul (a.k.a. An Baul; Hangul: 안바울, ; born 25 March 1994) is a South Korean judoka. An is the former half-lightweight World Champion. He rose to prominence by becoming South Korea's first half-lightweight champion in more than a deca ...

broke his streak by winning the 2015 World Championships. In the men's lightweight, Korea had a surge of dominance in the division with

Wang Ki-chun Wang Ki-Chun (Hangul: 왕기춘, ; born September 13, 1988 in Jeongeup, Jeollabuk-do) is a former judoka from South Korea. He became known for beating the 2004 Olympic champion Lee Won-Hee in the qualification matches for the 2007 World Champ ...

, who won the world championships 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 ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, Japan's

Hiroyuki Akimoto is a Japanese judoka . After moving up from the –66 kg division to the –73 kg division, he won the gold medal in the lightweight (73 kg) division at the 2010 World Judo Championships. He married volleyball player Ai Ōtomo ...

took over Wang as the world champion, marking a new era of Japanese dominance in the men's lightweight. Fellow countrymen

Riki Nakaya is a Japanese judoka. He is a two-time lightweight world champion and an Olympic silver medalist. He was also a finalist at the 2015 World Championships. Personal life Nakaya began judo in kindergarten, following his older brother. Nakaya ma ...

and

Shohei Ono is a Japanese retired judoka. Ono is regarded as one of judo's top fighters, having won three World Championships and two Olympic gold medals. He is the lightweight division's most dominant fighter, having won in every major championship he ...

then shared domination, with Nakaya winning in

and

, and Ono in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. In the upcoming

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

, it is widely thought that newly formed rivals Ono and Japanese-born Korean

An Chang-rim An Chang-rim (; born 2 March 1994) is a South Korean retired judoka. An is currently the world champion in the lightweight division. He began his rise as one of judo's top lightweights by becoming junior World Champion. It was followed by a tw ...

will be favorites for gold. In the men's middleweight, one of Japan's weaker divisions alongside the half-middleweight, South Korea had the upper hand in the past decade, producing two world champions in the form of

Lee Kyu-won Lee Kyu-Won (Korean: 이규원, Hanja: 李奎遠, born 14 February 1989) is a male judoka from South Korea, whose biggest success so far was winning the world title at the age of 19 at the 2009 World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands ...

(2009) and

Gwak Dong-han Gwak Dong-han (Hangul: 곽동한; ; born 20 April 1992) is a South Korean judoka. He won the gold medal in the 90 kg event at the 2015 World Judo Championships. He is currently ranked No. 1 in the world (as of 8 February 2016). He was his coa ...

(

), and an

Olympic champion This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports Winter Olympic sports A. Including military patrol e ...

Song Dae-nam Song Dae-Nam (Hangul: 송대남; ; born 5 April 1979 in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do) is a former South Korean judoka. Song rose to prominence when he won the gold medal in the middleweight division at the 2012 Olympics. He was then nominated as the ...

. Japan's closest finish in recent times was in

and

with

Daiki Nishiyama is a Japanese judoka. He won the silver medal in the middleweight (90 kg) division at the 2010 World Judo Championships. Because of nishiyamas ranking and recent form it has come as even more of a surprise that he was not includeded in the ...

's silver medals. Today, Gwak has formed a rivalry with several Japanese middleweights, most notably Nishiyama (3-3),

Mashu Baker , is a male Japanese judoka. His father is an American.Yuya Yoshida is a Japanese judoka. He won the gold medal in the 90 kg weight class at the 2014 Asian Games. References External links * 1989 births Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Japanese male ...

(1-1), and will most likely compete against them at the 2016 Olympics. In the team's competition, Japan and South Korea rekindled their vie for the number one country in judo at the 2015 World Championships, meeting in the final. With wins from Ebinuma, reigning

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Takanori Nagase Takanori Nagase ( ja, 永瀬貴規; born 14 October 1993) is a Japanese judoka. Nagase's achievements include the Universiade in Kazan in 2013, the Grand Slam in Tokyo in 2013 and 2014, the All Japan Championships, the IJF Masters in Rabat and ...

and Takeshi Ojitani, Japan claimed their

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

consecutive team gold while Korea settled for silver in their first team fight in five years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Japan-South Korea sports rivalries Japan–South Korea sports rivalries Sports rivalries Regional rivalries

Sports rivalries A sports rivalry is intense competition between athletic teams or athletes, affecting participants, management, and supporters all to varying degrees. The intensity of the rivalry can range anywhere from a light hearted banter to serious viole ...

Japan rivalry South Korea rivalry