2024 Emperor's Cup
The 2024 Emperor's Cup or the JFA 104th Japan Football Championship was the 104th edition of the annually known contested cup. As usual it featured 88 teams representing the prefectural football associations, university football federation, J1 League, J2 League and Japan Football League. The winner qualified to the group stage of the 2025–26 AFC Champions League Elite.
Kawasaki Frontale were the defending champions, winning the 2023 final on penalties against Kashiwa Reysol.
On 19 September 2023, it was announced by JFA that Urawa Red Diamonds was banned from participating in this tournament following supporters clash after a 0–3 loss against Nagoya Grampus in the 4th round of the previous year's edition. For this reason, instead of one, two specially designated amateur clubs were designated by JFA, being them 2023 Japan Football League champions Honda FC and 2023 University Championship winners Meiji University. Both teams were given a bye from prefectural qualifications, as usual.
Calendar
The schedule for the first round to the quarter-finals was announced on 15 December 2023 in JFA's 12th Board of Directors meeting.| Round | Date | Backup date | Matches | Clubs | New entries this round |
| First round | 25–26 May | 29 May | 24 |
| |
| Second round | 12 June | 19 June | 32 | 64 → 32 | |
| Third round | 10 July | 17 July | 16 | 32 → 16 | None |
| Round of 16 | 21 August | 28 August | 8 | 16 → 8 | None |
| Quarter-finals | 18 September | 11 and 25 September | 4 | 8 → 4 | None |
| Semi-finals | 27 October | – | 2 | 4 → 2 | None |
| Final | 23 November | – | 1 | 2 → 1 | None |
Qualifying rounds
As only J1 and J2 League clubs qualify directly for the first round, teams from outside of it who wants to qualify to the Emperor's Cup, have to 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 earning their right to play in the Emperor's Cup, with all of them assigned to start the competition in the first round.In bold, it's displayed the teams that won each final, and not necessarily the home team.
Participating clubs
[J1 League]
All teams playing in the 2024 J1 League join in the second round.[J2 League]All 20 teams playing in the 2024 J2 League join in the second round.
|