text: The , also known by the nickname , represents Japan in men's international football. It is controlled by the Japan Football Association (JFA), the governing body for football in Japan.
  Until the end of the 1980s, Japan was a small and amateur team. For a long time in the country, football was less popular than baseball and sumo. Since the 1990s, when Japanese football became fully professionalized, Japan has emerged as one of the most successful teams in Asia; they have qualified for the last seven FIFA World Cups (especially 2002 as co-hosts with South Korea) with knockout stage appearances that year, and in 2010, 2018 and 2022. They have won the AFC Asian Cup a record four times, in 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2011. The team also finished second in the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. Japan remains the only team from the AFC other than Australia and Saudi Arabia to have reached the final of a senior FIFA men's competition.