Japan national football team players: the Kirin Cup squad, four debutants and Ueda’s four goals

Japan’s current squad is the 28 players Hajime Moriyasu had at the end of the October window, the first since the World Cup, and it did not lose a game. Japan beat Uruguay and Venezuela in the Kirin Challenge Cup, got past Ecuador on penalties and beat New Zealand 2-1 in Tokyo on 5 October to win the Kirin Cup. Ayase Ueda scored four of their seven goals. Four players won their first caps.

Below is the full squad with caps and goals as they stood after the final, followed by who dropped out, the four results and Japan’s fixtures up to the Asian Cup in January.

Japan national football team squad: the current 28

Ages are as of 21 October 2026. Caps and goals are correct as of 5 October, after the Kirin Cup final.

Player	Position	Age	Club	Caps	Goals
Zion Suzuki	Goalkeeper	24	Aston Villa	31	0
Tomoki Hayakawa	Goalkeeper	27	Kashima Antlers	5	0
Leo Kokubo	Goalkeeper	25	Sint-Truiden	1	0
Ko Itakura (captain)	Defender	29	Borussia Mönchengladbach	44	2
Hiroki Ito	Defender	27	Bayern Munich	32	1
Ayumu Seko	Defender	26	Le Havre	20	0
Junnosuke Suzuki	Defender	23	Copenhagen	12	0
Hayato Araki	Defender	30	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	5	0
Junya Ito	Midfielder	33	Genk	77	16
Ritsu Doan	Midfielder	28	Eintracht Frankfurt	73	12
Daichi Kamada	Midfielder	30	Crystal Palace	57	14
Takefusa Kubo	Midfielder	25	Real Sociedad	54	7
Ao Tanaka	Midfielder	28	Leeds United	45	8
Keito Nakamura	Midfielder	26	Lyon	33	11
Yuki Soma	Midfielder	29	Machida Zelvia	22	5
Kaishu Sano	Midfielder	25	Mainz	19	1
Henry Heroki Mochizuki	Midfielder	25	Machida Zelvia	5	1
Kodai Sano	Midfielder	23	PSV	4	0
Satoshi Tanaka	Midfielder	24	Schalke 04	3	0
Kuryu Matsuki *	Midfielder	23	Southampton	2	1
Shuto Nakano *	Midfielder	26	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	2	0
Shunsuke Saito *	Midfielder	21	Westerlo	1	0
Ayase Ueda	Forward	28	Lille	47	22
Daizen Maeda	Forward	29	Ipswich Town	33	5
Yuito Suzuki	Forward	24	Freiburg	9	0
Keisuke Goto	Forward	21	Freiburg	6	0
Kento Shiogai	Forward	21	Wolfsburg	6	1
Kaina Tanimura *	Forward	28	Yokohama F. Marinos	2	0

* First call-up to the senior side in this window.

Twenty-two of the 28 play outside Japan: eight in Germany, five in England and the rest spread across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark. The six J.League players are Tomoki Hayakawa of Kashima Antlers, Hayato Araki and Shuto Nakano of Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Yuki Soma and Henry Heroki Mochizuki of Machida Zelvia, and Kaina Tanimura of Yokohama F. Marinos.

The squad has 650 caps and 107 goals between it. Junya Ito, at 33 the oldest player in the group, has the most caps with 77. Ueda has the most goals with 22, four behind Takumi Minamino’s 26. Minamino has not been called up since November 2025.

Who was called up and who dropped out

Moriyasu named 31 players on 17 September, four of them uncapped: Kuryu Matsuki of Southampton, Shuto Nakano, Shunsuke Saito of Westerlo and the Yokohama F. Marinos forward Kaina Tanimura. All four played. Matsuki needed eleven minutes of his debut against Uruguay to score.

Five of the 31 did not finish the window. Takehiro Tomiyasu was ruled out injured before the first game. Tomoya Ando (injury) and Ryunosuke Sato (club situation) were released on 28 September, the day of the Venezuela game, and Koki Kumasaka (injury) the day after. Tsuyoshi Watanabe hurt his leg late against Venezuela after Japan had used all their substitutes, so they finished that game with ten men, and Mochizuki came in for him. Moriyasu added Araki on 30 September, which is how 31 names became 28.

Japan’s results in the October window

Date	Result	Competition	Venue	Japan scorers
24 September	Japan 3-1 Uruguay	Kirin Challenge Cup	Rifu (Miyagi)	Matsuki, Shiogai, Ueda
28 September	Japan 2-1 Venezuela	Kirin Challenge Cup	Hiroshima	Ueda 2 (1 pen)
1 October	Japan 0-0 Ecuador (won on penalties)	Kirin Cup semi-final	Yokohama	None
5 October	Japan 2-1 New Zealand	Kirin Cup final	Tokyo	Ueda, Doan

Matsuki opened the scoring against Uruguay in Miyagi, cutting in from the right and finishing with his left foot, and Maximiliano Araújo equalised before half-time. Japan won it in stoppage time: Kento Shiogai, on as a substitute, scored his first international goal in his fourth appearance, and Ueda added a third.

Moriyasu made ten changes for Venezuela four days later, and Japan went behind a minute into the second half to a Kevin Kelsy goal. Ueda equalised three minutes after that from a Junya Ito cross, then won it from the penalty spot in stoppage time after a VAR review of a foul on Takefusa Kubo.

The Kirin Cup semi-final against Ecuador in Yokohama finished 0-0 and Zion Suzuki’s save in the shootout put Japan through. In the final Ueda scored after 28 minutes, Ben Old equalised four minutes later and Ritsu Doan settled it in the 71st. Japan had 20 shots in the final; New Zealand had three.

What has changed since the World Cup?

Twenty of the 26 who went to North America were named in September, and 18 of them were still there at the end. Tomiyasu and Watanabe were the two who dropped out injured. Six World Cup players were not called up: the goalkeeper Keisuke Osako, the defenders Yuto Nagatomo, Shogo Taniguchi and Yukinari Sugawara, and the forwards Koki Ogawa and Shuto Machino.

Wataru Endo, the captain who was withdrawn from the World Cup squad with a foot injury, had already retired from international football. Ko Itakura took the armband then and still has it.

Japan’s key players

Ayase Ueda is the one in form. He played all four games, scored in three of them, took the first penalty in the shootout against Ecuador and went from 18 international goals to 22. He has scored them in 47 caps.

Junya Ito set up Ueda’s goals against Uruguay and Venezuela and is the most experienced player in the squad. Kubo is on 54 caps at 25 and won the penalty against Venezuela. Itakura captains the side from centre-back, and Zion Suzuki, Aston Villa’s goalkeeper, played three of the four games and made the save that won the semi-final.

When do Japan play next?

Date	Fixture	Competition	Venue
14 November 2026	Japan v Brazil	Friendly	National Stadium, Singapore
17 November 2026	Japan v Paraguay	Friendly	National Stadium, Singapore
11 January 2027	Japan v Indonesia	Asian Cup, group	Jeddah
16 January 2027	Thailand v Japan	Asian Cup, group	Riyadh
20 January 2027	Japan v Qatar	Asian Cup, group	Riyadh

Two friendlies in Singapore in November, the first a rematch with the Brazil side that knocked Japan out of the World Cup, then the Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia, where Japan open against Indonesia in Jeddah on 11 January. Moriyasu stays in charge through that tournament.

How Japan did at the 2026 World Cup

Japan opened with a 2-2 draw against the Netherlands, Kamada equalising late. Then came the best performance of their tournament, a 4-0 win over Tunisia in Monterrey, with Kamada scoring inside four minutes, Ueda twice and Junya Ito once. A 1-1 draw with Sweden then settled the group: Netherlands seven points, Japan five, Sweden four and through as one of the best third-placed sides, Tunisia out with none.

Brazil ended it in the round of 32, winning 2-1 through a stoppage-time Martinelli goal in Houston on 29 June.

The finishing position, 21st and out in the first knockout round, undersells the football. Japan scored eight goals across four games, more than at any previous World Cup. Their old best was six, in 2018.

Japan’s record at the World Cup

Year	Result	Goals for
1998	Group stage	1
2002	Round of 16	5
2006	Group stage	2
2010	Round of 16	4
2014	Group stage	2
2018	Round of 16	6
2022	Round of 16	5
2026	Round of 32	8

Eight tournaments, 29 matches, eight wins, and no run past the round of 16 yet. In Asia the record reads very differently. Japan have won the AFC Asian Cup four times, in 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2011, which is one more than Iran or Saudi Arabia and the most of any country.

Quick answers

Who is the captain of the Japan national football team? Ko Itakura. He took the armband when Wataru Endo was withdrawn from the World Cup squad in June 2026.

Who is Japan’s most capped player? Yasuhito Endo, with 152 appearances between 2002 and 2015. Yuto Nagatomo is second. In the current squad the most capped player is Junya Ito, with 77.

Who is Japan’s all-time top scorer? Kunishige Kamamoto, with 75 goals. Ayase Ueda leads the current squad with 22.

Did Japan win the Kirin Cup 2026? Yes. They beat Ecuador on penalties in the semi-final and New Zealand 2-1 in the final at the National Stadium in Tokyo on 5 October.

More national-team squads: Germany, the Netherlands, Croatia, Belgium and India.

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