The Japan Futsal National Team are scheduled to play international friendly matches on Thursday 15 and Sunday 18 September at Matsue City General Gymnasium in Shimane and Sky Hall Toyota in Aichi. A press conference was held on Tuesday 30 August to announce the squad for the two matches, with Chairman KITAZAWA Tsuyoshi of the JFA Futsal Committee and coach KOGURE Kenichiro of the Japan Futsal National Team taking the stage.

The squad featured players who participated in the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021™, such as YOSHIKAWA Tomoki (Nagoya Oceans) and OLIVEIRA Arthur (Nagoya Oceans), while also featuring newcomers like NAGASAKA Takumi (Bardral Urayasu) and KANAZAWA Sora (Tachikawa Athletic FC).

In these matches, Japan will face the Brazil Futsal National Team, the team that eliminated Japan from the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021™ at the round of 16.

While the main purpose of the two matches is to strengthen the team for the AFC Futsal Asian Cup Kuwait 2022™, which will be held from Tuesday 27 September, they will also provide an opportunity to showcase the world’s highest level of futsal to the Japanese fans and supporters.

Participants' Comments

KITAZAWA Tsuyoshi, Chairman of JFA Futsal Committee
We will be able to play international friendlies in Japan for the first time in two and a half years. We will be up against Brazil, who denied us from achieving our goal of reaching the quarterfinals in last year's World Cup. The team had not been able to play any matches against superior opponents since coach Kogure took over. In that sense, I think this opportunity to play against the world's best team in our country will provide us with a very important opportunity to strengthen our team and prepare for the upcoming AFC Asian Cup and the World Cup.

KOGURE Kenichiro, Head Coach of Japan Futsal National Team
With this being our first match played in Japan for a long time, and it being against Brazil, I think there will be a great deal of interest. For the team, this is an important preparation match towards winning the AFC title. We want to raise the value of futsal in the country and the national team is at the forefront of this mission. Not only do we want to showcase an entertaining match, but we also want to demonstrate our strong desire to raise the value of futsal, so that people will be even more interested in the sport. We are not going to enter the matches with the intention of learning from our opponents, but to win the matches and gain momentum before leaving to Kuwait.