The project was launched in 2022 in partnership with Walt Disney Japan Ltd. It aims to give girls of primary school age and below the opportunity to experience the fun of football through training and mini-games, and to encourage them to take a new step forward.

A place where women of all ages, whether they have ever played football or not, can enjoy the sport in a relaxed environment. Run by local organisations and facilities accredited by JFA, it offers football and futsal clinics and a wide range of events.

In conjunction with the United Nations' International Women's Day on 8 March, JFA has designated this day as "JFA Women's Football Day". Women's football events and symposiums are organised to give women easy access to football, the opportunity to make new discoveries and gain new social experiences through football. We also participate in International Women's Day forums and work with external organisations to help build a movement for women's empowerment.

In terms of player development, the standards that Japan is aiming for in all areas, including coaching methods, medical systems and safeguarding initiatives, are shared with coaches across the country to promote a long-term strategy that is based on world standards. International competitions at each age level are analysed to identify problems and solutions are shared with coaches across the country. We aim to raise the overall standard of our players through a continuous cycle of overcoming problems and challenging the world again.

Designed for promising high school and university age players, the system allows designated players to play in official matches as members of WE League and Nadeshiko League Division 1 teams while still being registered with their own team.

JFA operates four JFA academies, Fukushima, Kumamoto Uki, Sakai (Osaka) and Imabari (Ehime), of which Fukushima is for both boys and girls, while Sakai and Imabari are for girls. These academies are institutions that specialise in the development of players with the slogans “Aiming to develop top 10 individual talents in the world” and “Always keeping in mind the global standard”. The academies, each of which is a boarding school, provide an excellent environment and quality coaching with a long-term perspective for promising players and have produced many players who have gone on to play in the WE League and Nadeshiko Japan.

The Training Centre System is a system that allows talented players, grouped by age group, to train in an enriched environment for a set period of time. Players are categorised according to their level of ability and selected for their respective training centres - district, prefecture, nine regions, national - with the best players progressing to the national youth teams.

By selecting players around the U-15 age group and providing them with continuous training, the project aims to identify and develop future goalkeepers for Nadeshiko Japan.

National competitions are organised in various categories from U-12 to O-40.

The name “Nadeshiko Japan" is derived from the nickname of a goddess in Japanese mythology, Yamato Nadeshiko, and represents a Japanese woman as pure and strong as the Nadeshiko flower. By winning the FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011™, they became the first Asian team ever to be crowned world champions in both the men's and women's competitions. The team also won the Fair Play Award when they won the World Cup for the first time. Their dedication to the game brought hope and courage to Japan in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The team has participated in five Olympic Games since 1996, winning a silver medal at London 2012.

U-20 Japan Women's National Team was founded in 1992 and has participated in the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup™ on seven occasions. The team made their first World Cup appearance at the inaugural tournament in 2002, where they finished in the top eight. They finished third at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Japan 2012™, won their maiden title at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup France 2018™ and finished runners-up at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Costa Rica 2022™. They are also highly regarded for their fair play, having won the World Cup Fair Play Award four times, including in 2018 when they won the tournament.

The U-17 Japan Women's National Team has participated in all seven FIFA U-17 Women's World Cups™ since the tournament's inception in 2008. They were runners-up at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Trinidad & Tobago 2010™ and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Jordan 2016™ and won their maiden title at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Costa Rica 2014™. Following in the footsteps of their predecessors, the U-17 Japan Women's National Team have also won the Fair Play Award four times, including in 2014 when they won the tournament.

The WE League is Japan's first fully professional women's football league, which was launched in September 2021 with 11 teams. As the name “Women Empowerment League" suggests, the league was established with the goals of “Being a driving force for gender equality in Japan”, “Establishing roots for 'professional women's sports' in Japan”, “Contributing to the growth of women's football in Japan" and “Reclaiming the World Cup for Nadeshiko Japan". The league runs from autumn to spring, with a home-and-away round-robin system used to determine the standings.

The Japan Women's Football League is a women's football league founded in 1989. Following the decision to name the Japan Women's National Team “Nadeshiko Japan" leading up to the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (Athens 2004), the Japan Women's Football League, then the pinnacle of women's football in Japan, was also nicknamed the “Nadeshiko League". Today, the Nadeshiko League remains the top amateur women's football league in Japan, with two divisions.

The Women's F.League is a women's futsal league founded in 2017. The league is played in a round-robin format with play-offs to determine the standings.

Fair play is something that Japanese football prides itself on. A heated game, full of respect and fair play, is both inspiring and exciting for all those watching, and it goes without saying that this is the origin of sport. With the slogan “to care about others”, JFA, is committed to spreading the spirit of respect for all people, things and the environment associated with football. We are also firmly opposed to all forms of discrimination and violence in football and other sports, and are prepared to take legal action to eradicate discrimination on the basis of gender or race, as well as slander and libel on social networking sites.

In 2008, JFA launched the “Respect Project”. Since then, JFA has been carrying out various initiatives to spread the spirit of respect under the slogan “To care about others".

In 2019, JFA announced its pledge to support the “Children's Rights in Sport Principles”, published by UNICEF, and announced “The Declaration - Ensure Safety of the Football Family”, based on the same principles. In 2021, on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, JFA formulated the “JFA Safeguarding Policy” as a guideline for the next 100 years to further focus on safeguarding. By sharing these guidelines with everyone, JFA will create an environment in which everyone can enjoy sport throughout their lives, contributing to the healthy development of people's minds and bodies and to the development of society.

To increase the number of female coaches, JFA has organised training courses exclusively for women, and in 2020 launched the Associate Pro Licence training course to train coaches who can manage clubs in the WE League. There are also workshops for female coaches who want to improve their skills in order to obtain higher licences. Japanese coaches, with their wealth of knowledge and experience, are highly regarded in Asia and many female coaches have been dispatched to Asian countries to work as national team coaches at the request of national/regional football associations.

In addition to organising referee training courses available for both men and women, JFA also promotes the development of female referees by offering training courses for youth referees under the age of 18 and 15 respectively, as well as for those wishing to progress to higher levels. In recent years, female referees have officiated in the J.League and JFL, as well as in other men's competitions such as the AFC Champions League.

The 1995 FIFA Women's World Championship (now the FIFA Women's World Cup™) was the first time a Japanese referee had stepped onto the international stage. YOSHIZAWA Hisae took part in the tournament after being selected as an “International Female Assistant Referee”, which was registered by FIFA for the first time that year. Yoshizawa also served as an assistant referee for the women's final at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad (Sydney 2000), while OIWA Mayumi became the first Japanese woman to be appointed as a referee at the FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007™. For the first time in the tournament's history, six female referees were selected for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, including YAMASHITA Yoshimi. Since then, Japanese female referees have continued to excel in international men's competitions, such as the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™, where Yamashita became the first woman to referee a men's Asian Cup match, while BOZONO Makoto and TESHIROGI Naomi were also appointed as assistant referees for the same match.

With the aim of developing female executives and managers who will lead the future of football and the sports world, JFA has partnered with the WE League to develop female leaders since 2020. Based on the three pillars of “understanding women and gender”, “reforming mindsets” and “acquiring management skills”, the programme is aimed at women who are candidates for management positions in 47 prefectural football associations, WE League clubs, various football leagues and other sports organisations.

In 2020, JFA joined the WE League in signing the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs). By signing the WEPs, we are expressing our strong commitment to creating both work and social environments in which women can demonstrate their strengths, and by promoting these activities in the world of football, we hope to lead the way in the advancement of women in sport and in society.