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.

The World Cup tickets of all matches are now available for sale. Football tickets of all the matches of World Cup are for sale at ticket4football.com, you can buy the Japan World Cup Tickets for its upcoming matches and World Cup Football tickets of other teams on this website.