Japan arrive in their World Cup 2026 group as a team quietly convinced it can do something it never has: reach the quarter-finals. The squad have one simple next step — open against the Netherlands on Sunday at 21:00 BST — and the mood in camp is not cautious optimism but expectation.
That belief is anchored by form. Japan are currently unbeaten in their past nine matches against European opposition, a run that underpins the argument that this side can match and even outlast more fancied teams. The 26-man squad selected by Hajime Moriyasu includes midfield figures expected to carry the campaign, notably Daichi Kamada of Crystal Palace and Ao Tanaka of Leeds United, while supporters will be following players such as mitoma among others.
Moriyasu has framed the tournament in big terms, saying he wants Japan to be “one of the best of the best” and that the national setup has raised its level bit by bit. He has also been frank about the knock-on effects of injuries, noting he must draw the best from the players available and that the squad has already shown it can perform regardless of who starts.
Those internal lines of confidence are echoed by Maya Yoshida, who has stayed with the group in a non-playing role to provide leadership. Yoshida, who captained Japan at the last World Cup, distilled the target bluntly: reaching the quarter-finals is the main goal, and anything beyond that would be a bonus.
The recent World Cup provides the clear template for why belief has hardened. In 2022 Japan beat Germany and Spain in the group stage and then drew 1-1 with Croatia in the round of 16, only to be eliminated on penalties. That campaign left two contrasting takeaways: Japan can unsettle Europe’s best, but knockout margins remain unforgiving — a tension that now hangs over this tournament as much as it informs the team’s ambition.
Japan sit in Group F alongside Sweden and Tunisia, with the Netherlands the first hurdle. The opener on Sunday will therefore define the tone: a positive result would not guarantee a deep run in a 48-team World Cup, but a defeat would force Japan to chase the rest of the group rather than set the pace. For a team that has reached the round of 16 four times but never the quarter-finals, the fixture list is as consequential as any single tactical tweak.
Practically, watch how Moriyasu balances his midfield spine. With Kamada and Tanaka named in the 26-man roster, Japan have central creativity and ballast; how they deploy those resources against the Netherlands’ strengths will show whether their unbeaten record against European sides is more than an anomaly. Yoshida’s presence as an experienced voice — he travelled with the squad as a 37-year-old non-playing support player — will be significant if the match tightens late.
The friction is obvious: Japan have been unbeaten in nine matches versus European opponents, yet that same resilience was not enough to get past Croatia in 2022, when a 1-1 draw ended in penalty defeat. The unresolved question now is sharper: can this iteration of the team convert that consistency into tournament momentum and finally break through to a quarter-final for the first time?
Sunday night at 21:00 BST is the answer’s first installment. Win, and Japan carry credibility and the luxury of choice into the rest of Group F; lose, and their path to an unprecedented World Cup quarter-final hardens. Either way, the next move is clear — perform against the Netherlands and see whether the rising belief in this squad will survive the test of a major knockout-stage ambition.
