Japan's first World Cup appearance was in 1998 in France; they have qualified for every World Cup since. Their domestic league, J-League, is regarded as the best Asian league with a number of Brazilian and European stars part of the league.
Their best World Cup performances were in 2002, when they co-hosted the tournament, and in 2010 when they qualified for the knockout stages.
They were the first team to qualify for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups after the host nations. In 2002, they beat Russia and Tunisia and drew againt Bulgaria to advance to the knockout stages where they eventually lost to Turkey.
In the 2010 World Cup they lost to Netherlands but defeated Cameroon and Denmark to qualify for the knockout stages where they lost to Paraguay on penalties.
