Japan have been involved in two upsets during this World Cup so far. They first upended Germany, beating the four-time World Cup winners 2-1, before losing 1-0 to unfancied Costa Rica, which leaves them in a genuine predicament when it comes to advancing from Group E. The Samurai Blue must find a way to earn at least a point against Spain in their group-stage finale on Thursday to have a realistic chance of reaching the round of 16 for the fourth time in their history.
While Japan are going into the game as clear underdogs, there is hope that another upset is in the realm of possibilities thanks to a backbone of technical and high-octane players who all earn their money in Germany.
Out of the 23 outfield players selected by national coach Hajime Moriyasu, eight play in the German Bundesliga and one in the 2. Bundesliga. “The [Japanese (JFA) and German (DFB) FAs] have been close for many decades, going back to 1960, when Japan trained in Germany in preparation for the Olympics, and Dettmar Cramer was appointed by the JFA as a technical advisor,” Dan Orlowitz, a Tokyo-based reporter, tells ESPN.
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Yasuhiko Okudera became the first Japanese to appear in the Bundesliga after he signed with FC Cologne in 1977, although his decision to go to West Germany was met with rejection at home. “He was branded as a ‘traitor of the nation,'” Tatsuro Suzuki, a Berlin-based translator and coach, explains. “At the time it was a no-no to go abroad.” That changed some years later, as a wave of Japanese players led by Shinji Kagawa and Makoto Hasebe came to the Bundesliga in the 2010s.
“I think Bundesliga clubs see Japanese players as dedicated hard workers who play for the team and don’t have egos, which fits the dynamic over there,” Orlowitz says.
While German teams are well connected in Japan nowadays and are able to get a hold of emerging talents, not every Japanese player appearing in the Bundesliga came directly from Japan. The group of eight in the World Cup squad can be divided into three parts: Ko Itakura, Takuma Asano, Ritsu Doan and Wataru Endo were signed by clubs in England, Belgium or the Netherlands, but either could not establish themselves there and had to go elsewhere, or showed their talent and were signed by German clubs later.
Daichi Kamada, Hiroki Ito and Ao Tanaka moved directly from Japan to Germany, while Maya Yoshida played eight years in the Premier League and three in Serie A before he signed a contract with Schalke 04 this summer.
Kamada might be the biggest name in Japanese football right now, having been part of Eintracht Frankfurt‘s Europa League-winning campaign in 2021-22. In the months leading up to the World Cup, Kamada impressed with his attacking instinct and finishing skills, scoring 12 goals in 22 games. Naturally, he has been linked with several potential clubs if he chooses to leave the Bundesliga side, although Frankfurt would like to keep the midfielder because they know how much they can count on him delivering consistently good performances.
What Kamada is to Japan’s attacking midfield, Endo is to their defensive midfield. The 29-year-old from VfB Stuttgart is widely regarded as one of the more dominant No. 6s in the Bundesliga, combining smart positional play and relentless defensive intensity. In a sense, Endo is a successor to Hasebe, who at 38 has moved into an elder-statesman-like role at Frankfurt. In his heyday, Hasebe was a field general similar to what Endo personifies today.
