2020 Emperor's Cup
The 2020 Emperor's Cup was the 100th edition of the annual Japanese national football cup tournament. The tournament, originally scheduled to begin on 23 May, was rescheduled to begin on 16 September and ended with the final on 1 January 2021 at the National Stadium.
The number of teams was reduced to 50 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, and subsequently changed to 52 teams. Both the champions of the 2020 J2 League and the 2020 J3 League entered at the quarter-finals. The top two teams from the 2020 J1 League entered at the semi-finals.
The defending champions were Vissel Kobe but they were unable to defend the title as they failed to qualify through the top two of the 2020 J1 League.
The J1 League champions Kawasaki Frontale completed the double by beating the league's runners-up Gamba Osaka in the final, earning their first Emperor's Cup title.
Calendar
The revised schedule was announced on 18 June 2020.| Round | Date | Matches | Clubs | New entries this round |
| First Round | 16 September | 16 |
| |
| Second Round | 23–30 September | 16 | 16+15+1 → 16 | |
| Third Round | 28 October – 11 November | 8 | 16 → 8 | |
| [|Fourth Round] | 13 December | 4 | 8 → 4 | |
| [|Fifth Round] | 20 December | 2 | 4 → 2 | |
| Quarter-finals | 23 December | 2 | 2+2 → 2 | |
| Semi-finals | 27 December | 2 | 2+2 → 2 | |
| Final | 1 January 2021 | 1 | 2 → 1 |
Regional allocation
JFA decided that 48 amateur teams would be split into 8 regions, and each region would be represented by 1 team in the Fourth Round. 8 regions were based on 9 regional football associations in Japan.- Kantō ;
- Kyushu ;
- Hokushinetsu ;
- Tōkai ;
- Chūgoku ;
- Hokkaido & Tohoku ;
- Shikoku ;
- Kansai ;