Japan national under-23 football team: Difference between revisions

National association football team

The Japan national under-23 football team（Japanese: U-23サッカー日本代表）is a national association football youth team of Japan and is controlled by the Japan Football Association. The team won the gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games and were champions in the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship. Since 1992, it was decided that teams targeting athletes under the age of 23 will participate in the Olympics (additional provisions for overage limits have been added since 1996). Therefore, the name changes to Japan national under-22 football team the year before the Olympics and Japan national under-21 football team two years prior. The exception to this was the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed one year, so in 2021, the team was called the Japan national under-24 football team.

Team image[edit]

Nicknames[edit]

“サムライ・ブルー (Samurai Blue)” basically refers to the Japan national football team, but the under-23 football team are sometimes referred to as “Young” Samurai Blue. However, in reality, Samurai Blue is not often used.

Rivalries[edit]

South Korea[edit]

Japan maintains a strong football rivalry with South Korea, even in youth set-ups.

Results and fixtures[edit]

Legend

  Win   Draw   Lose   Fixture

2023[edit]

U-22[edit]

2022[edit]

U-21[edit]

Head-to-head record[edit]

As of 4 October 2023, after the match against  Hong Kong.

The following table shows Japan under-23 team’s all-time international record.

Coaching staff[edit]

U-22 staff[edit]

As of 29 March 2023.

The following staff managed the players selected for friendly matches on March 2023.^[4]

Players[edit]

Current U-22 squad[edit]

The following players were called up for the Asian Games, held from September to October 2023.^[5] Kotaro Uchino and Shun Ayukawa replaced injured Naoki Kumata and Yudai Kimura.

Caps and goals as of 1 October 2023, after the match against  North Korea.

Recent U-22 call-ups[edit]

The following players were called up to the squad in the past 12 months.

(Players are listed within position group by order of latest call-up, seniority, caps, goals, and then alphabetically)

Current U-21 squad[edit]

The following players were called up for friendly matches against Spain and Portugal on 18 and 22 November 2022, respectively.^[6]

Caps and goals as of 22 November 2022, after the match against  Portugal.

Recent U-21 call-ups[edit]

The following players have been called up in the past 12 months.

(Players are listed within position group by order of latest call-up, seniority, caps, goals, and then alphabetically)

Previous squads[edit]

Bold indicates winning squads

Olympic Games

AFC U-23 Asian Cup

Asian Games

Overaged players in the Olympic Games[edit]

Manager history[edit]

Records[edit]

As of 12 September 2023

Players in bold are still active, at least at club level.

Caps and goals is calculated by all national team level include U21, U22, and U23.

Competitive record[edit]

  Champions    Runners-up    Third place    Fourth place  

Olympic Games[edit]

Match history[edit]

AFC U-23 Asian Cup[edit]

Match history[edit]

Asian Games[edit]

Match history[edit]

See also[edit]

National teams

Men’s

Women’s

References[edit]

External links[edit]