Japan – the country, the football

Officially pronounced “Nippon-koku” or “Nihon-koku”, Japan is an island country situated in the Pacific Ocean.

To the south, it has Taiwan and the East China Sea whereas the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea, and Russia as well as the Sea of Okhotsk are located to the east and to the north respectively.

Japan is actually formed of 6,852 islands with Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido constituting 97% of Japan’s land area as the country’s largest islands.

Japan has one of the biggest populations in the world with around 128,000,000 inhabitants – 30,000,000 of which reside in Japan’s capital Tokyo only.

The ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ (the definition of the name Japan) experienced one of, if not the greatest, development in the industrial and economic world.

The 20th century saw them grow as one of the powerful nations. Japan is best known for its influence in science and technology; Car and machinery brands like Toyota and Akai are just few examples of Japan’s popularization in the world's scientific and technologic sector.

Now Japan’s importance in the world of business is far from being equaled by the country’s importance in the world of soccer.

If Japan’s national football team (the Samurai Blue) is a major force in the AFC region having won three trophies in six attempts, their pedigree is not the same at the international level.

Perhaps their 2001 second-place finish at the FIFA Confederations Cup will come as their most impressive run in a major international tournament.

But in the World Cup, there has never been much to celebrate. In their only three appearances – which came consecutively since France 1998 – Japan’s best result was a Round of 16 finish. That was back in 2002 when they co-hosted the tournament with South Korea.

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success in the Asian Cup

Japan has had considerably more success in the Asian Cup, taking home the winner's trophy in three of the last four finals, in 1992, 2000 and 2004. Their principal continental rivals are South Korea, followed by Saudi Arabia, and most recently Australia.

Japan is the only team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América, having been invited in 1999 and 2011.

In August 2006, incoming head coach Ivica Osim gave the captaincy to Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, as he felt that the extra responsibilities detracted from former captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto's contributions to his club team.

During the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, in the fourth round of the Asian Qualifiers, Japan became the first team other than the host South Africa to qualify after defeating Uzbekistan 1-0, in Tashkent. Japan is in Group E along with the Netherlands, Denmark and Cameroon.

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Takeshi Okada

Takeshi Okada is the head coach of the Japanese national soccer team.

As a player, he played 24 games and scored one goal for the Japan national football team between 1980 and 1985.

He coached Japan at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, later Consadole Sapporo (1999-2001) and Yokohama F Marinos (2003-2006).

Okada was named Japan's head coach in December 2007 to replace Ivica Osim, who suffered a stroke.

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Japan World Cup bid to focus on 2022

concentrate on bidding for the 2022 World Cup after being told the 2018 tournament will go to Europe, the country's football chief said on Tuesday.

Japan Football Association (JFA) president Motoaki Inukai said he had been advised by FIFA boss Sepp Blatter to focus on taking the 2022 finals to Asia.

"The atmosphere was that they want to bring the 2018 tournament back to Europe," Inukai told reporters on his return to Japan.

"It will be a cut-throat battle (for 2022) and it will require an awful lot of leg-work."

Inukai will make a formal announcement after a bid committee meeting on May 11.

"President Blatter told us European countries would be involved in a fight to host the 2018 World Cup and it would be wiser to aim for 2022," Inukai said after a visit to FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Monday.

Japan will face competition in Asia for the 2022 World Cup from South Korea, with whom they co-hosted the 2002 finals, and Qatar.

England, Australia, Russia, the United States and joint bidders Belgium/Netherlands and Spain/Portugal are in the hat for both 2018 and 2022.

FIFA will name the host countries for both tournaments in December. fa cup final tickets for South Africa 2010 and Champions League final tickets and Inter Milan Vs Bayern Munich Tickets are available now a days.

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more success in the Asian Cup

Japan has had considerably more success in the Asian Cup, taking home the winner’s trophy in three of the last four finals, in 1992, 2000 and 2004. Their principal continental rivals are South Korea, followed by Saudi Arabia, and most recently Australia.

Japan is the only team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América, having been invited in 1999 and 2011.

In August 2006, incoming head coach Ivica Osim gave the captaincy to Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, as he felt that the extra responsibilities detracted from former captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto’s contributions to his club team. fa cup final tickets for South Africa 2010 and Champions League final tickets and Inter Milan Vs Bayern Munich Tickets are available now a days.

During the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, in the fourth round of the Asian Qualifiers, Japan became the first team other than the host South Africa to qualify after defeating Uzbekistan 1-0, in Tashkent. Japan is in Group E along with the Netherlands, Denmark and Cameroon.

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World Cup 2010 : Sota Hirayama Has High Hopes For Japan Place

Sota Hirayama is waiting to hear if he is going to make the Japan squad for South Africa.

The FC Tokyo striker offers Japan an option of height in attack and is hoping that his skills on the floor as well as his 190cm frame could tempt coach Takeshi Okada to name him on May 11.

Hirayama made his international debut in January this year, scoring a hat-trick in a 3-2 win in Yemen.

"I really want to go to the World Cup, but I'm not taking anything for granted," Hirayama told The Japan Times.

"If I don't get picked I'm sure I'll be disappointed and it will hurt, but I can still play football and there is always another World Cup in four years. I also have ambitions that I want to fulfill with my club, and if I don't make it, I will just have to work harder.

"But my height is an advantage. Other teams might be expecting the Japanese players all to be short, so it's in my favor that I'm tall."

Hirayama is not an automatic pick and has missed the squads for Japan’s last two games. He intends to keep scoring for FC Tokyo and see what happens.

"Goals are the best medicine for a striker," he said. "No matter what shape you're in, if you score it gives you confidence. If you have confidence, you play in a positive frame of mind. That's a very important thing."

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Japan Road to South Africa

Despite a shock 1-0 defeat away in Bahrain, Japan topped the first of their qualifying groups ahead of the tiny Gulf nation as both sides moved through to the final round.

The second round of qualifiers always looked likely to be a two-horse race between Australia and Japan, and following a tense 0-0 draw in Yokohama, it was Australia who gained the psychological edge with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over the Samurai Blue in Melbourne.

Japan ultimately finished five points behind the Socceroos, as coach Takeshi Okada lost his battle of wits with former J. League tactician and current Australia coach Pim Verbeek. Finishing behind their burgeoning rivals was a blow, but Okada is acutely aware that the real work starts in South Africa.

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Arjen Robben is a bit good

Our boss man Takeshi Okada watched Bayern’s Champions League match with Lyon the other day, and has come to the stunning conclusion that Arjen Robben is a bit good, and that the Netherlands may prove to be a bit of a tough test for Japan!

“Robben is a really amazing player. I don’t know how you stop him. He can come up with incredible goals like that. They also have players like van Persie and Kuyt. You can’t simply man-mark every one of them. The Dutch can shoot from any range — totally different to Japan. I will need to impress on the players a real sense of urgency. The Dutch really are a high-level team”.

Well what a relief that he decided that he may need to have a plan to face the Dutch! I hope he manages to think of a way of at least trying to stop him and the others – I think Japan will needs a little more than a mere “sense of urgency”.

Japan were easily beaten 3-0 by the Dutch in a friendly last September, and the world is expecting a repeat.

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Shunsuke’s Pain in Spain

It seems that our good friend Shunsuke Nakamura learnt a few hard lessons during his time in Spain with Espanyol where things didn’t exactly go as he’d hoped.“I must admit I was short on ability. If I had not been to Spain, I would have gone on without realising this. What I lacked was strength in one-on-one situations. It all comes down to one-on-one duels, whether you play in a team which passes the ball around or in a team which attacks with long passes. Even if they confront opponents, players over there can shake them off before shooting.”

This highlights what is a frequent problem for Japanese players when facing tougher and more physical opponents, and is what could well be our undoing in the World Cup against three physically strong teams.“Six months passed quickly but it was tough. If it was not so close to the World Cup, I could have opted to stay at Espanyol. It’s not just for the World Cup. I will make the best use of it in my footballing life. There is no time for me to be negative, even when it’s tough.”

It’s good for Japan that he has gone back to Yokohama to rediscover some form, and get match fit, ahead of the World Cup, though it’s obviously a shame for him personally but if he’s learnt from it then maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all.

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Alumni appointed as Minister of Sports

This will be the first time that the FIFA World Cup tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. This decision left the Oceania Football Confederation as the only confederation yet to host the FIFA World Cup.

Giselle Goyenaga Calvo, former student of the FIFA/CIES Programme, has been appointed as Minister of Sports of Costa Rica. She is the first woman to hold such a position in this country.

The official announcement was made by President-elect Laura Chinchilla, who will come into office on 8 May.

The future Minister of Sports studied physical education at the Universidad de Costa Rica, an academic partner of CIES. She was also a member of the volleyball and triathlon national teams. The World Cup 2010 tickets of all matches are now available for sale.

CIES would like to congratulate Giselle for her appointment and wishes her every success in the course of her new and important duties for Costa Rica and its youth.

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Asia’s World Cup Story – 3. Barren Years

Things appeared to be slightly more organised all round for the 1958 qualifying. The British nations had to compete against other European nations to qualify instead of using the Home Championships, the qualifying was truly zonal, and Asia had several rounds of qualifying planned.

The flipside for Asia is that they had lost their one qualifying place which was now to be shared between Africa and Asia. This would be the cause of ongoing arguing over the next few World Cups, and the cause of many a withdrawal.

The preliminary round saw no action at all, with Indonesia progressing thanks to Taiwan’s withdrawal. They did actually have to play China in the next round and edged past them on goal average, after another withdrawal this time from Hong Kong who were also briefly in the group.

The remaining first round groups continued the theme and saw Israel progress after Turkey refused to compete in the Asian group, and Egypt progressed after Cyprus withdrew. Syria were back after an 8 year absence and made a good fist of things but still lost out to Sudan.

The semi-final round saw Israel drawn against Indonesia. But politics intervened again, and after an Indonesian request to play on neutral ground instead of home and away was rejected, they withdrew. Egypt withdrew too, meaning Sudan progressed to the final round with Israel.

Can you guess what happened next? Yep, Sudan refused to play Israel, meaning that Israel had technically qualified for the Finals, having come past Turkey, Indonesia and Sudan without the inconvenience of actually having to play. The World Cup 2010 tickets of all matches are now available for sale.

However, after the years of teams qualifying without ever having to play FIFA had ruled that this couldn’t happen again. So Israel had to play a match to qualify, but who to put them against?

Wales were chosen as the lucky loser, and went on to beat Israel home and away 2-0 on both occasions, and qualified for their only World Cup Finals appearance. This left Asia (and Africa) with no representation at the 1958 World Cup.

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Shunsuke Nakamura

Shunsuke Nakamura a Japanese football player who currently plays for Yokohama Marinos in J-League. He is one of the most prominent and successful Asian players to have played in Europe and on 13 September 2006 became the first Japanese player to score in the UEFA Champions League and the second Asian player to do so. He is also well known for his free kick-taking abilities. Asteroid 29986 Shunsuke is also named in his honour.

He has won the Asian Cup in 2000 and 2004 with the Japanese national football team, and was named Most Valuable Player in the 2004 competition. He has also appeared in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, and the 2000 Summer Olympics as a member of the Japanese Under-23 team.

In his first season with Celtic, Nakamura helped the club win the Scottish Premier League and Scottish League Cup. The World Cup 2010 tickets of all matches are now available for sale.

His contributions to the Japanese national football team are represented by 23 goals. His former clubs include Yokohama F. Marinos and Reggina, for whom he scored 38 and 12 goals respectively before moving to Celtic on 25 July 2005 for a fee of around £2.75 million.

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Yuto Nagatomo

Nagatomo was educated at and played for Saijo Kita Junior High School and Higashi Fukuoka High School. He decided to continue his study and football at Meiji University as he caught no scouts' eyes at his high school days. It wasn't until he was converted to a right full-back in 2006 that he started to distinguish himself. He was chosen as a member of the All Japan University XI and represented Japan for the 2007 Universiade held in Bangkok.

In 2007, Nagatomo was chosen as one of the Designated Players for Development by J. League and JFA. With this status, he was able to register as a J. League club player while he was still eligible to play for his university. He played one J. League Cup game for F.C. Tokyo that season. He also played for Japan's U-22 team in the Olympic Games qualfiers.

Nagatomo officially signed with F.C. Tokyo in 2008 as he continued to study at Meiji. He earned his first international cap on May 24, 2008 in a friendly against Côte d'Ivoire.

He is a member of the Japan team for the 2008 Summer Olympics finals.

On November 13, 2008 Nagatomo scored his first international goal in a friendly against Syria.

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Yuji Nakazawa

Yuji Nakazawa is a Japanese football (soccer) player who currently plays for J. League side Yokohama F. Marinos. He is a center back. He is captain of both Yokohama F. Marinos and the Japan national football team. His nickname is "Bomber" because of his distinctive hairstyle. Nakazawa is one of only 3 Japanese players to reach 100 caps for his country.
He was a member of the Japan team who won the 2000 AFC Asian Cup in Lebanon. He played 3 games in the competition. However, he was not selected for the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals as Yutaka Akita was preferred.

He was transferred to Yokohama F. Marinos in 2002 and contributed to the club winning two consecutive J. League championships in 2003 and 2004. He was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the league in 2004.

Under new national manager Zico, he partnered with Tsuneyasu Miyamoto at the back line. He participated in the 2004 AFC Asian Cup finals. He played all the Japan matches and scored 3 goals, one of which was a stoppage time equaliser in the semi-final against Bahrain, and Japan went on to win the title again.

He also played in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany but the team failed to proceed to the knockout stage. After the tournament, he announced his retirement from the international football at the age of 28. However, six months later, he withdrew his decision and Ivica Osim played him in a friendly against Peru on March 24, 2007.

He played in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals but this time the team failed to defend the title and finished 4th in the tournament.

On February 14, 2010 Nakazawa made his 100th appearance for the Japan national team against South Korea in the final match of the 2010 East Asian Football Championship at Tokyo's National Stadium. Nakazawa becomes only the third Japanese player to reach 100 caps for his country.

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Atsuto Uchida

He represented Japan at several underage levels. He was part of the Japan team for the AFC Youth Championship 2006 finals hosted by India and Japan finished runners-up. He also took part in the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup finals hosted by Canada.

In 2006, he received an international call-up from national coach Ivica Osim but did not play any game. He finally made a full international debut for Japan on January 26, 2008 in a friendly against Chile at National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. This was the first match under the reign of new manager Takeshi Okada. On February 6, 2008 he played 90 minutes for Japan in a 4-1 win against Thailand and became the first teenaged Japanese footballer to play FIFA World Cup qualification after the establishment of the J. League in 1993. On June 22, 2008 he scored the winner in a 1-0 win against Bahrain. It was his first international goal and he became the youngest Japanese goalscorer in FIFA World Cup qualification at age 20 years and 87 days, beating an 11-year-old record that was held by Hidetoshi Nakata.

He is a member of the Japan team for the 2008 Summer Olympics finals.

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Marcus Tulio Tanaka

Born in São Paulo, Brazil to a Japanese-Brazilian father and Italian-Brazilian mother, Tulio moved to Japan at age 15 to complete his high school studies. After graduation from Shibuya Makuhari High School in Chiba Prefecture in 2001, Tulio joined the J.League club Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

When Sanfrecce was relegated to J2 after his second season in 2002, he was loaned to fellow J2 side Mito Hollyhock. On October 10, 2003, Tulio obtained his Japanese citizenship. In 2004, after a season at Mito, Tulio returned to the J1, joining Urawa Reds and played for Japan at the 2004 Olympic games.

Tulio made his debut for the Japan's senior national team on August 9, 2006, against Trinidad and Tobago. He scored his first goal for Japan on November 15, 2006 in a 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia. After the strong performance in 2006 J. League season, which led Urawa to win their first ever J-League title, he received J-League Player of the Year. But he missed 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals due to an injury. His absence was a big blow to the Japan NT.

Tulio went on to score his second goal for the Japanese national team, on 22 August, 2007, in an international friendly versus Cameroon - a header.

On July 17, 2008, he scored his first hat-trick in J. League Division 1 in a league game against Tokyo Verdy.

On December 22, 2009, after falling out with the management at Urawa, Tulio joined Nagoya Grampus. He played 168 games and scored 37 goals for his ex-club.

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Yūichi Komano

Yūichi Komano is a Japanese football player. He plays for J.League division 1 side Júbilo Iwata. He is right-footed and mainly plays right full back for the club but he is often employed in the left for Japan national football team.

Komano played for his local junior high school team. He was invited for trials from several clubs including Gamba Osaka, JEF United Ichihara, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and local high school powerhouse Hatsushiba Hashimoto. He decided to join Sanfrecce Hiroshima and entered Yoshida High School in Hiroshima.

he has been the first-choice right back for the club since 2001 when he is available. He suffered from several serious injuries and illnesses. He damaged the cruciate of his left knee in the match against Yokohama FC on August 16, 2003. While he was in hospital, he suffered from a venous thrombosis. Because of these, he was sidelined until April 2004. He broke his left collar bone in an Olympic game against Ghana in August 2004. In September of the same year, he also suffered from a uveitis problem that might have caused blindness.

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in the Asian Cup

Japan has had considerably more success in the Asian Cup, taking home the winner's trophy in three of the last four finals, in 1992, 2000 and 2004. Their principal continental rivals are South Korea, followed by Saudi Arabia, and most recently Australia.

Japan is the only team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América, having been invited in 1999 and 2011.

In August 2006, incoming head coach Ivica Osim gave the captaincy to Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, as he felt that the extra responsibilities detracted from former captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto's contributions to his club team.

During the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, in the fourth round of the Asian Qualifiers, Japan became the first team other than the host South Africa to qualify after defeating Uzbekistan 1-0, in Tashkent. Japan is in Group E along with the Netherlands, Denmark and Cameroon.

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Looking forward

Japan became the first team to book their place after earning a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Uzbekistan in Tashkent. Shunji Okazaki claimed the only goal of the game after nine minutes to book a fourth successive finals berth.

Japan's first major achievement in international football came in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where the team won the bronze medal. This raised awareness of the sport in Japan but absence of a professional domestic league hindered its growth and Japan had to wait 30 years before qualifying for the World Cup.

In 1991, the owners of the semi-professional Japan Soccer League agreed to disband the league and re-form as the professional J League to raise the sport's profile and to strengthen the national team programme. With the launch of the new league in 1993, interest in football and the national team grew.

Japan co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea. Despite being held to a 2-2 draw by Belgium in their opening game, the Japanese team reached the second round with a 1-0 win over Russia and a 2-0 victory against Tunisia. However, they subsequently exited the tournament during the Round of 16, after losing 1-0 to the eventual third-place finishers, Turkey.


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