Japan is the first among 48 teams to qualify for this year's World Cup football set to kick off in three western hemisphere countries from the second week of June. The national team under the supervision of Manager Hajime Moriyasu is now making the final preparation for the initial group stage participation in which Japan has been placed in Group F along with the Netherlands, Sweden and Tunisia.

For the first time in the history of world football, an expanded list of 48 countries will be participating for this most sought-after competitive sporting event watched over by millions of football enthusiasts around the world. FIFA World Cup Football that started in 1930 had initially slotted for 16 qualifiers of the final phase of the tournament and from there moved upward to 24 and then to 32. As popularity of the game had gone much beyond that of any other sporting event, the world football body has eventually decided to expand the number of participants from this year's competition to 48 countries. The final list of countries making it to the last stage became clear only last month after a number of continental wide play off matches resulted in filling out the remaining gaps. This, on the other hand, had extended the duration of qualification stage running almost for two years, and the final stage of competition to more than a month. Finally, all has now been settled and team members of 48 countries are getting ready to fly to host nations for the start of the group stage competition on June 11.

Saying so, one unforeseen obstacle suddenly emerged clouding the nature of this massively popular and highly competitive sporting event by mixing it with real-time politics; and thus, turning the fate of one qualifying country off-balance. Soon after the United States and Israel launched their deadly strike against Iran on the last day of February by killing a number of leading figures of the country and bombing numerous targets all over the territory, President Donald Trump declared that he would not like to see the Iranian football team setting foot on his country. The president of the United States has even suggested that FIFA, the world football management body, should replace Iran by another country; a defiant and unprecedented call that the world has never heard of before. However, with the passage of time the fury of that unjustified self-serving rhetoric has lost much of its sharpness as the Iranian soil turned out for the US not as soft as some other countries, Trump had to face unexpected criticism coming from a number of world leaders, including some of his closest allies, for what many termed as crossing the red line of mixing sports with politics. Subsequently, the Iranian national team is now slowly getting ready for joining the lot, though traces of uncertainty still linger.

Most of the qualified 48 countries have already announced the formation of their national squads and are getting ready to join others in respective groups in designated cities of three host countries. As mentioned earlier, Japan definitely made a difference as the country became first among 200 plus FIFA members to reach that initial target. A number of other countries had to wait until the very last play-off matches for their fates to be decided, and a few of those like Italy, the football giant of the recent past, had to swallow the bitter pill of bowing out of the game after failing to win the very last match against a relatively weaker opponent. As a result, Japan's first achievement of leading the pack has been seen by many as a sign of country's maturity in international football, despite the fact that the game in Japan is still referred to as soccer, a term used mostly by nations where football does not generate much enthusiasm.

Football in Japan does have a long historical legacy and it is still not the most sought-after game for all who enjoy playing and watching the game being played. However, this scenario had gone through a rapidly changing phase during last three decades and football is now firmly rooted as a national sporting event in the hearts of the majority. More kids are seen these days chasing after the ball in playing fields than those gesturing the imaginary hitting of a ball by a baseball bat. Japan did not have professional football league well until mid-1990s. As a result, football in Japan can be termed as a sporting event that started from the scratch and made a rapid phenomenal progress within a short period of time.

Manager-coach Moriyasu named his 26-member squad on May 15 for the next month's tournament. Missing in the list is the ace striker Mitoma who plays in English Premier League for Brighton and considered to be the key attacking player for Japan. Moriyasu said at the press conference of announcing the team that the injury Mitoma suffered on May 9 while playing for Brighton will need a significant time for recovery, and that made it impossible for him to be a part of the World Cup squad. Mitoma, who scored the winning goal for Japan in the friendly against England in March, is considered by many as the ace player and his absence might be felt in the tournament. However, Japan recently has seen the emergence of a number of key players in every position and many of them are joining various teams in European football leagues. The team announced in mid-May also comes as a proof of Japan's football supremacy in Asian continent. Only two among all 26 members of the team play in Japanese league and the rest are part of leading football teams in a number of European countries that include Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Monaco, Ajax, Real Sociedad, Celtic, Le Havre, Genk, Parma, Eintracht Frankfurt and Copenhagen. This clearly shows the maturity of a team for which the coach set the target of reaching the quarter final of this year's World Cup.

Looking at Japan's performance in recent months at international stage, the target seems to be an easily achievable one and going beyond that might also turn out to be a reality for Japan. The national team has played in five international friendlies since mid-October 2025 winning in all five games, including one against England in Wembley and one against Brazil. As a result, the prediction of a Japan's miracle performance might not be seen merely as a miracle, but a real performance based on quality football that team members are now capable of displaying. As a result, fans eyes are now firmly set on next month's schedule that for Japan will start against Netherlands on June 15 at Dallas. In FIFA ranking Japan's position is eighteenth against the seventh of Netherland's. Two other teams in the same group are Sweden ranked thirty-eighth and Tunisia ranked forty-fourth. Japan is set to play against Tunisia on June 21 at Monterrey and then return to Dallas for the final group stage match against Sweden on June 26.

In Japan fans of the national team are now eagerly waiting to see the outcome of the team's group stage performance and also hoping for the national squad's move beyond that.

(Tokyo, May 24, 2026)