Ara_sport

Japan (JPN)

Profile

Founded	1921
Affiliated	1929
WC participations	2 (1998, 2002)
WC honours	Last sixteen (2002)
Continental Titles	Asian Cup three times (1992, 2000, 2004)
Facts Japan will be participating in qualifying for a FIFA World Cup™ for the 13th time, having reached the finals just twice. For a long time, Japanese football struggled to break through, despite an Olympic bronze medal. That was to change in 1998, when the team reached the finals of the FIFA World Cup in France, suffering narrow defeats to Argentina, Croatia and Jamaica. Four years later in their home country, Japan would have their finest hour. The surprise package reached the last sixteen after topping their group, only to be eliminated by the slightest of margins in a 1-0 defeat to eventual semi-finalists Turkey. Asian football will surely play an increasing part in international football for years to come.

Players:

1 NARAZAKI Seigo (GK)
2 TANAKA Makoto
3 KOMANO Yuichi
4 ENDO Yasuhito
5 MIYAMOTO Tsuneyasu
6 NAKATA Koji
7 NAKATA Hidetoshi
8 OGASAWARA Mitsuo
9 TAKAHARA Naohiro
10 NAKAMURA Shunsuke
11 MAKI Seiichiro
12 DOI Yoichi (GK)
13 YANAGISAWA Atsushi
14 SANTOS Alessandro
15 FUKUNISHI Takashi
16 OGURO Masashi
17 INAMOTO Junichi
18 ONO Shinji
19 TSUBOI Keisuke
20 TAMADA Keiji
21 KAJI Akira
22 NAKAZAWA Yuji
23 KAWAGUCHI Yoshikatsu (GK)

General Information

FIFA Trigramme: JPN
Country: Japan
Country (official name): Nihon Koku
Continent: Asia
Capital: Tokyo
Major cities: Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Kobe, Fukuoka, Kawasaki, Hiroshima, Kita-Kyushu, Sendai, Kagoshima, Niigata
Currency: Yen
Official languages: Japanese
Motto: Peace and progress (Emperor's motto).

Population (in millions): 127.21
GDP per inhabitant (in US dollars): 28,000
Density (inhabitants per km2): 336.69
Average age (in years): 42
Life expectancy at birth (in years): 80.93

Internet code: .jp
Number of internet users: 56 million (2002)



Sports