Japan World Cup 2026 squad: Hajime Moriyasu's final selection (original) (raw)

Japan World Cup 2026 squad: Japanese players pose for photographers

Japan's head coach Hajime Moriyasu (Image credit: Getty Images)

The Japan World Cup 2026 squad has been named by head coach Hajime Moriyasu.

Japan go into World Cup 2026 as one of the dark horses, with one of the most exciting squads at the tournament: that's something that would have seemed like a fever dream when the Far East hosted the 2002 tournament, but just a couple of decades on and Japanese football is thriving… as England found out in a March friendly.

Liverpool's Wataru Endo captains alongside Premier League rivals Daichi Kamada and Ai Tanaka in midfield, with Ko Itakura and Hiroki Ito behind – and it's a lovely sight to see Takehiro Tomiyasu overcome his injury hell of the last couple of years to return to a squad that he more than deserves his place in.

The attack, however, has taken a significant blow: Kaoru Miroma will miss the tournament through injury after suffering a hamstring injury for Brighton & Hove Albion, in what is absolutely gutting news for the Samurai Blue.

Hidemasa Morita won't be going to the tournament either, despite leading Sporting to a Champions League quarter-final, while Takumi Minamino ruptured his left knee anterior cruciate ligament and hasn't recovered in time.

Mitoma may well be his nation's best player, but there are stars waiting to step up in his absence: Ayase Ueda, Ritsu Doan and one-time Galactico and La Masia product Takefusa Kubo are all exciting attackers in their own right.

This tournament has also come a little soon for talented youngsters Kota Tawaratsumida and Sota Kitano, the latter of whom was compared to Hidetoshi Nakata and Keisuke Honda in a FourFourTwo scout report.

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Squad

Japan World Cup 2026 squad: The final selection

Fixtures and results

Fixtures

Results

Group F standings

Japan are in Group F at World Cup 2026.

Manager

Who is Japan's manager?

Hajime Moriyasu

Hajime Moriyasu (Image credit: Getty)

World Cup 2026 in the United States, Mexico and Canada will be the second World Cup in charge for Hajime Moriyasu, who has masterminded back-to-back away wins against Scotland and England in the final international fixtures before he names his tournament squad.

Japan beat both Spain and Germany in Qatar before they were knocked out on penalties by Croatia in the round of 16. Moriyasu has a tremendous record when it comes to seeing off big-name opposition and is keen that his team be seen more as dark horses than underdogs on the world stage.

As the manager of Japan's under-23s until 2021, he former Sanfrecce Hiroshima boss is familiar with the generation players who hope to achieve that with him.

Star player

Who is Japan's star player?

Japan players celebrate Doan Ritsu's goal against Germany at the 2022 World Cup.

Japan players celebrate Doan Ritsu's goal against Germany at the 2022 World Cup. (Image credit: Getty Images)

Ritsu Doan starred on the wing against England at Wembley and had a huge impact at World Cup 2022, scoring the equalising goals against both Germany and Spain off the bench as Japan secured comeback wins in the group stage.

The former Gamba Osaka junior joined Eintracht Frankfurt from Freiburg last summer after playing in the Netherlands for Groningen and PSV.

After a blistering start to the Bundesliga season, he reached the March international break with six goals in all competitions for his new club and with a sizeable share of a nation's World Cup hopes at his feet.

Best XI

Mark White is the Digital Content Editor at FourFourTwo. During his time on the brand, Mark has written three cover features on Mikel Arteta, Martin Odegaard and the Invincibles, and has written pieces on subjects ranging from Sir Bobby Robson’s time at Barcelona to the career of Robinho. An encyclopedia of football trivia and collector of shirts, he first joined the team back in 2020 as a staff writer.