Japan National Soccer Team

The Japan National Soccer Team (日本代表, Nippon Daihyō), nicknamed “Samurai Blue” in reference to their blue home jerseys, is the national soccer team of Japan and one of Asia’s most successful teams. Representing the country in international competitions since 1921, they are one of only eight nations to have qualified for every World Cup since its inception in 1930. The team has also won four AFC Asian Cups (1992, 2000, 2004 and 2011) as well as three East Asian Football Championship titles (2003–04; 2008; 2013).

Japan became the first ever Asian nation to defeat a European side when it beat France 1-0 during an Olympic qualifier at Stade de Gerland on October 28th 1931. To date this remains Japan’s biggest win over a European opponent. After several decades without much success on the world stage, Japanese football began its rise with a fifth place finish at Mexico 1986 before reaching new heights by winning gold medals at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics. This was followed up by becoming joint champions alongside Australia when co-hosting 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup which proved significant ahead of hosting 2020 Summer Olympics where both Men’s & Women’s teams will be looking towards making history again!

In recent years under coaches such as Akira Nishino & Hajime Moriyasu players like Yuto Nagatomo or Maya Yoshida have become household names within domestic competition while overseas based stars including Shinji Kagawa or Keisuke Honda remain key figures abroad – all contributing heavily toward continued success story that sees Samurai Blue regularly competing amongst world’s elite sides despite being geographically isolated from traditional powerhouses Europe/South America etc…

Despite failing short many times throughout qualifying campaigns for major tournaments such as 2018 FIFA World Cup – there is always renewed sense optimism around squad whenever new cycle approaches thanks largely part due increased level professionalism modern game requires today – something which can certainly benefit them going forward should continue develop further…