The is the national
Football team of
Japan and is controlled by the
Japan Football Association . It is currently the highest-ranked
Asian (
AFC ) national team in the official
FIFA World Rankings .
After being overshadowed for years by
Baseball and
Sumo wrestling, football has been rapidly growing in popularity in Japan. The nation's first
World Cup appearance was in
1998 , where they lost their first two fixtures 1-0 to
Argentina and
Croatia , despite playing well in both games. Their campaign ended with a surprise 2-1 defeat by rank outsiders
Jamaica .
Four years later, they co-hosted the
2002 World Cup with
South Korea . Despite being held to a 2-2 draw by
Belgium in their opening game, they advanced to the second round with an impressive 1-0 win over
Russia and a comfortable 2-0 victory against
Tunisia . However, they subsequently exited the tournament in disappointing fashion, giving a poor performance as they lost 1-0 to eventual third-place finishers
Turkey .
The Japanese team has had considerably more success in the
Asian Cup , taking home the winner's trophy in three of the last four finals. Their principal continental rivals are
Iran , and
South Korea .
On
June 8 ,
2005 , Japan qualified for their third consecutive World Cup by beating
North Korea 2-0 in
Bangkok, Thailand . For the
2006 FIFA World Cup , Japan is in
Group F along with
Australia ,
Brazil , and
Croatia .
- 1930 - ''Did not enter''
- 1934 - ''Did not enter''
- 1938 - ''Withdrew''
- 1950 - ''Did not enter''
- 1954 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1958 - ''Did not enter''
- 1962 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1966 - ''Did not enter''
- 1970 to 1994 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1998 - Round 1
- 2002 - Round 2
- 2006 - Qualified
