Association Football Sport in Japan

association football 1 of popular sports in japan. japan football association (jfa), governing body of japanese football. jfa organizes men s, women s, , futsal national teams.

football introduced japan during meiji period o-yatoi gaikokujin, foreign advisors hired japanese government, along many other foreign sports, baseball. first japanese football club considered tokyo shūkyū-dan, founded in 1917, competing in tokyo prefectural amateur league.

in 1920s, football associations organized , regional tournaments began in universities , high schools, in tokyo. in 1930s, japan national football team organized , had 3-3 tie china first title @ far eastern championship games. japan national team competed in 1936 berlin olympic games, team had first victory in olympic game 3 - 2 win on powerful sweden.

the japanese national football team successful @ international level, , has competed in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, , 2014 fifa world cups. best result round 2 in 2002 , 2010. japanese national team has competed in 6 afc asian cups, team being champions in 1992, 2000, 2004 , 2011 afc asian cups. team s highest ranking 9th in world in february 1998. japan has competed in many other footballing events including confederations cup, east asian football championship, , copa américa.

the women s national team has enjoyed major success @ world cup, winning 2011 edition in germany , finishing runner-up in 2015 edition in canada.

the national team s colors blue , white, japan s main colors in international sporting competitions.