Football in Japan


Football is among the most popular sports in Japan, together with baseball, tennis, golf, sumo, and combat sports. Around 40% of Japanese people consider themselves football fans. The nationwide organization of football, the Football Association">Association football">Football Association, administers the professional football leagues, including J.League, which is considered by many the most successful football league in Asia. Japan is also the country with the most comprehensively developed football in Asia in both men and women as well as in both futsal and beach soccer.

Football

Although the official English name of the Japan Football Association uses the term "football", the term 2=サッカー, derived from "soccer", is much more commonly used than 2=フットボール. The JFA's Japanese name is Nippon Sakkā Kyōkai.
From 1885 to around 1908 in the Meiji era, fūtobōru was the most commonly used term, and assoshieshon also appeared; these were often written together with kemari, a ball game of the Heian period. During the Taishō era and the early Shōwa era, terms such as ashiki futtobōru, ashiki shūkyū, and shūkyū came into frequent use. With previously exclusive Japanese terms replaced by American influence after the war, sakkā became more commonplace. In recent years, many professional teams have named themselves F.C.s, with examples being FC Tokyo and Kyoto Sanga FC.

History

The introduction of football in Japan is officially credited by the Japan Football Association, and numerous academic papers and books on the history of association football in Japan, to then Lieutenant-Commander Archibald Lucius Douglas of the Royal Navy and his subordinates, who from 1873 taught the game and its rules to Japanese navy cadets while acting as instructors at the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in Tsukiji, Tokyo.
The first official football match in Japan is widely believed to have been held on February 18, 1888, between the Yokohama Country & Athletic Club and Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club. YC&AC is the oldest running association football club in Japan as Association Football was introduced into the club on December 25, 1886, for training sessions starting from January 1887.
The first Japanese association football club, founded as a football club, is considered to be Tokyo Shukyu-dan, founded in 1917, which is now competing in the Tokyo Prefectural amateur league.
In the 1920s, football associations were organised and regional tournaments began in universities and high schools especially in Tokyo. In 1930, the Japan national association football team was organised and had a 3–3 tie with China for their first title at the Far Eastern Championship Games. The Japan national team also participated in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the team had the first victory in an Olympic game with a 3–2 win over powerful Sweden.
Aside from the national cup, the Emperor's Cup established in 1921, there had been several attempts at creating a senior-level national championship. The first was the All Japan Works Football Championship, established in 1948 and open only to company teams. The second was the All Japan Inter-City Football Championship, established in 1955 and separating clubs by cities but the Emperor's Cup remained dominated by universities until the late 1950s. All these tournaments were cups following single-elimination formulas, similar to Serie A in Italy before 1929.
The first organized national league, the Japan Soccer League, was organized in 1965 with eight amateur company clubs and replaced the AJWFC and AJICFC. At the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, the Japan national team, filled with the top JSL stars of the era, had its first big success winning third place and a bronze medal. Olympic success spurred the creation of a Second Division for the JSL and openings for the first few professional players, in the beginning, foreigners, and a few from other countries, which also led to the country hosting its first international competition, the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship. Japanese players, however, remained an amateur, having to work day jobs for the companies owning the clubs. This limited the growth of the Japanese game, and many better Japanese players had to move abroad to make a living off the game, such as Yasuhiko Okudera, the first Japanese player to play in a professional European club,. UEFA and CONMEBOL aided the Japanese awareness of football by having the Intercontinental Cup played in Tokyo as a neutral venue.
In 1993, the Japan Professional Football League was formed replacing the semi-professional Japan Soccer League as the new top-level club competition in Japan. It consisted of some of the top clubs from the old JSL, fully professionalized, renamed to fit communities and with the corporate identity reduced to a minimum. The new higher-standard league attracted many more spectators and helped the sport to hugely increase in popularity. The professionalized league also offered, and offers, incentives for amateur non-company clubs to become part of their ranks with no major backing from a company; major examples of community, non-company-affiliated clubs who rose through the prefectural and regional ranks into the major leagues are Albirex Niigata and Oita Trinita.
Japan participated in its first-ever World Cup tournament at the 1998 FIFA World Cup held in France. In 2002, Japan co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Republic of Korea. After this, the association football communities of both countries received the FIFA Fair Play Award. The Japanese national team has reached the round of 16 on four occasions – as hosts in 2002, where they were knocked out by Turkey 1–0, in 2010, where they lost to Paraguay in penalties, in 2018 where they fell 2–3 to Belgium, and in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Japan also qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Football in fiction

The first worldwide popular association football-oriented Japanese animation series, Captain Tsubasa, was started in 1981. Captain Tsubasa was extremely popular among children of both genders in Japan. Its success led to much more association football manga being written, and it played a great role in association football history in Japan. Playing football became more popular than playing baseball in many schools throughout Japan from the 1980s due to the series.
Captain Tsubasa has also inspired the likes of prominent footballers such as Hidetoshi Nakata, Seigo Narazaki, Zinedine Zidane, Francesco Totti, Fernando Torres, Christian Vieri, Giuseppe Sculli, James Rodríguez, Alexis Sánchez and Alessandro Del Piero to play association football and choose it as a career. The inspiration for the character of Tsubasa Oozora came from a number of players, including most prominently Musashi Mizushima, arguably the first Japanese footballer to play abroad, and whose move to São Paulo FC as a ten-year-old boy was partly mimicked in the manga.
The anime Giant Killing revolves around a team's efforts to go from one of the worst professional teams in Japan to the best. Other works focusing on football include Hungry Heart: Wild Striker, The Knight in the Area, Days, Inazuma Eleven and Blue Lock.

Women's football

As in European countries, Japanese women's football is organized on a promotion and relegation basis. The top flight of women's association football is the semi-professional L. League. Most clubs are independent clubs, although the recent trend is to have women's sections of established J.League clubs.
The national team has enjoyed major success at the FIFA Women's World Cup, having achieved its greatest triumph ever by winning the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany and finishing as runner-up in 2015 in Canada.

Small-sided football

Championships and tournaments

Domestic tournaments

Other international tournaments held in Japan

Japanese footballers

Men's national team achievements

Women's national team achievements

Seasons in Japanese association football

1920s: 192119221923192419251926192719281929
1930s:1930193119321933193419351936193719381939
1940s:1940194119421943194419451946194719481949
1950s:1950195119521953195419551956195719581959
1960s:1960196119621963196419651966196719681969
1970s:1970197119721973197419751976197719781979
1980s:1980198119821983198419851986198719881989
1990s:1990199119921993199419951996199719981999
2000s:2000200120022003200420052006200720082009
2010s:2010201120122013201420152016201720182019
2020s:2020202120222023202420252026202720282029

Football stadiums in Japan

Stadiums with a capacity of 50,000 or higher are included.
#ImageStadiumCapacityCityRegionBuiltHome team
1Japan National Stadium80,016TokyoKantō region2019Japan national football team
Japan national rugby union team
2Nissan Stadium72,327YokohamaKanagawa1998Yokohama F. Marinos
3Saitama Stadium 200263,700SaitamaKantō region2001Japan national football team
Urawa Red Diamonds
4Shizuoka Stadium50,889FukuroiShizuoka2001some Júbilo Iwata and Shimizu S-Pulse matches

Attendances

2024

The average attendance of the 2024 J1 League was 20,321. With an average of 37,519, the Urawa Red Diamonds drew the highest average home attendance in the 2024 J1 League. Average home attendance figures of the 2024 J1 League:
Source:

Historical attendances

The average attendance per top-flight football league season and the club with the highest average attendance:
SeasonLeague averageBest clubBest club average
202521,246Urawa Red Diamonds37,350
202420,355Urawa Red Diamonds37,519
202318,991Urawa Red Diamonds30,509
202214,329Urawa Red Diamonds23,617
201920,751Urawa Red Diamonds34,184
201819,064Urawa Red Diamonds35,502
201718,878Urawa Red Diamonds33,542
201417,297Urawa Red Diamonds35,516
201317,226Urawa Red Diamonds37,100
201217,567Urawa Red Diamonds36,634
201115,799Urawa Red Diamonds33,910
201018,515Urawa Red Diamonds39,941
200919,121Urawa Red Diamonds44,210
200819,208Urawa Red Diamonds47,609
200719,066Urawa Red Diamonds46,667
200618,301Urawa Red Diamonds45,732
200518,763Albirex Niigata40,114
199613,353Urawa Red Diamonds24,329

Sources: League pages on Wikipedia