Against a backdrop of back-to-back historic upsets over global football powerhouses Brazil and England, Japan men’s national football team head coach Hajime Moriyasu remains unshaken in his bold goal of lifting the 2026 FIFA World Cup trophy — even as a devastating hamstring injury rules out star winger Kaoru Mitoma just days before the squad announcement.
The 28-year-old Brighton & Hove Albion speedster, who was entering a career peak form ahead of the tournament and scored the match-winning goal against England at Wembley earlier this year, will miss the global showpiece. Mitoma’s absence marks the second high-profile injury blow for Japan, following Monaco attacker Takumi Minamino’s December knee ligament tear that also ruled him out of the competition. Yet Moriyasu argues that his squad’s deep strength in depth, built on a core of players plying their trade at top European clubs, is more than capable of filling the gap left by the in-form winger.
History shows just that: when Japan claimed their first ever win over five-time World Cup champions Brazil last October, overturning a 2-0 half-time deficit to seal a dramatic 3-2 victory in Tokyo, Mitoma was already sidelined. “That reflects the team concept, that anyone can come into the line-up and the team still performs,” Moriyasu noted of the squad’s collective ethos. The historic result against Brazil was followed by another first for Japanese football in March, when they became the first Asian men’s national team to beat England on home soil, a 1-0 win that cemented growing belief in the side’s ability to compete with the world’s best.
Japan, the first nation to qualify for the 2026 tournament, has been drawn into Group F alongside the Netherlands, Sweden and Tunisia, kicking off their campaign against the Dutch in Dallas on June 14. Unlike past squads that heavily relied on domestic league talent, Moriyasu’s 2026 roster features only three players from Japan’s top-flight J.League, with the remaining 23 spots filled by players competing across Europe’s top competitions. Key stars that have overcome long-term injury layoffs to make the squad include Liverpool defensive midfielder Wataru Endo and Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu, while Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda brings consistent goalscoring threat, with Crystal Palace’s Daichi Kamada and Real Sociedad’s Takefusa Kubo rounding out the attacking core.
Half of the current squad already has experience at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, where Japan pulled off two of the biggest upsets in tournament history: back-to-back 2-1 wins over four-time champions Germany and 2010 winners Spain to top their group, before bowing out to Croatia in a penalty shootout in the round of 16. That run extended Japan’s pattern of reaching the last 16 four times in their World Cup history — but they have never advanced past that stage to the quarter-finals. Moriyasu is targeting an unprecedented run all the way to the title this time around, and Mitoma’s injury has done nothing to change that goal.
“We have more players with World Cup experience and that will help us in terms of the team’s composure,” Moriyasu said. “It will help us perform effectively in a variety of situations.”
Japan cruised through the Asian qualifying stage, securing their spot with three matches to spare and dropping only three points before their final dead-rubber loss. This tournament marks their eighth consecutive World Cup appearance, dating back to their debut in 1998. Moriyasu, Japan’s longest-serving national team head coach who took the reins after the 2018 World Cup, brings a wealth of high-level experience himself, having led Japan at two Asian Cups, the Tokyo Olympics, and the 2022 World Cup after winning three J.League titles with club side Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
“The target doesn’t change,” he insisted of the World Cup glory goal. “But it’s not just about that target, it’s about raising our level as individuals and as a team. It’s not just about my own experience. The managers that have gone before me, both foreign and Japanese, and my staff also have experience of the World Cup. I want to use that experience and knowledge to increase our chances, no matter how slightly.”