Japan Football Association (JFA) held an extraordinary meeting of the Technical Committee and the Board of Directors on Wednesday 28 December, and unanimously decided to renew the contract with SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team) Head Coach MORIYASU Hajime until the FIFA World Cup 2026™. At a press conference held in Tokyo on the evening of this day, Coach Moriyasu expressed his determination, “We want to see a new view we haven't seen yet at the next World Cup.”

Aiming to reach the quarterfinals and beyond at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, which ran until 18 December, Japan topped Group E in the group stage with victories over Germany and Spain, two formidable countries that have won the tournament before. Although they lost to Croatia, the eventual third place finishers of this tournament, Japan managed to reach the round of 16 in back-to-back World Cup appearances.

With this being the first time for the Japan National Team to be led by the same head coach over consecutive World Cups, JFA President TASHIMA Kohzo explained the reasoning of their decision, “He has enhanced the reputation of Japanese football globally and had a good influence on Japanese society. We strongly believe that he is the most appropriate coach to lead us to the next level.” .....

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