World Cup preview: Japan
The Samurai Blue are hoping to get their first knockout stage win
Previous World Cup appearances: 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018
Best finish: Round of 16 (2002, 2010, 2018)
Group stage schedule: vs. Germany (Nov. 23), vs. Costa Rica (Nov. 27), vs. Spain (Dec. 1)
Notes: All stats accurate as of Oct. 19, 2022.
The breakdown
How they qualified: Japan entered in the second round of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifying and won all eight of their games. They were placed in a group with Australia, China, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam in the third round and finished second in the group with 22 points from 10 games to secure the group’s final automatic spot in Qatar.
Names to know:
Junya Ito (Stade de Reims) — Ito was the only Japanese player with more than five goals and five assists during qualifying. He led the team with seven assists, and his 13 total goal involvements were one shy of the team high. The 29-year-old produced 18 goals and 23 assists in his final two seasons in the Belgian Pro League with Genk before joining French side Stade de Reims in the 2022 summer transfer window1.
Takumi Minamino (Monaco) — A midseason addition to Liverpool’s 2019-20 Premier League title team, Minamino scored 14 times in 55 appearances for the club and left to join Monaco this summer2. He tied for the team lead with 10 goals in qualifying and was also one of two players to record more than three assists. Minamino has participated in either the Champions League or Europa League for seven consecutive seasons.
Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo) — Remarkably, the 36-year-old Yagatomo has played every second of the past three World Cups. The veteran left back picked up an assist in the 2014 and 2018 editions of the tournament and contributed a goal and two assists during qualifying. Yagatomo made 170 Serie A appearances in eight seasons with Italian power Inter Milan.
Yuya Osako (Vissel Kobe) — Osako has five career World Cup starts, three of which came in Russia. He scored the game-winning goal in Japan’s victory over Columbia in their first game of the 2018 tournament. The former Köln and Werder Bremen man was the team’s joint-top goalscorer in qualifying with 10 and has 26 Bundesliga goals to his name3.
Maya Yoshida (Schalke) — No Japanese outfield player logged more minutes during qualifying than Yoshida, who has a combined 243 starts in the Dutch Eredivisie, English Premier League and Italian Serie A. The longtime Southampton center back didn’t leave the field at the last two World Cups. He joined newly promoted German club Schalke for the 2022-23 season.
Potential breakout star: Ritsu Doan (Freiburg)
Doan made just four appearances during qualifying but picked up an assist and scored twice in Japan’s run to the 2019 Asian Cup final4. He is playing regularly in both the Bundesliga and the Europa League for an impressive Freiburg team following his move from PSV in the summer.
The bottom line
Reason for optimism: They give themselves a chance
Just two of Japan’s 11 games in the last three World Cups were decided by multiple goals. It took a stoppage-time goal for Belgium to get past them in the round of 16 in 2018.
Biggest question: Can they get the big win?
Much of Japan’s recent World Cup success has come from performing well against teams with comparable or inferior talent. They need to deliver against the better teams in the tournament to advance in the knockout stage.
Here’s the deal:
They will likely need to take points off Germany or Spain to have a chance of getting out of the group, which is something they are more than capable of doing. A deep run is possible if they catch some breaks along the way.