Japan women's national football team

, also known as , is a Japanese women's association football team.  The team represents Japan in international competition.  It is made up of the best female players in Japan.

_Nadeshiko_ Japan is best known as the first Asian team to win the FIFA Women's World Cup.

## History

Japan Football Association (JFA) set up an official women's organization in 1979. The _Fédération Internationale de Football Association_ (FIFA) asked each member country to promote and develop the sport among women.

In 1981 the Japan women's national football team played its first international match in Hong Kong.  The team lost to Taiwan 0-1.

The women’s national team qualified for the "1991 FIFA Women's World Cup" in China.

In 2004, the JFA organized a public contest to select a name for the team; and "_Nadeshiko_ Japan" was chosen from among 2,000+ entries.

In the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, Japan defeated the United States team in the last game of a knockout tournament.

In the 2012 Summer Olympics, _Nadeshiko_ Japan won the silver medal.

### FIFA Women's World Cup Record

|Hosts / Year|Result|width=20||width=20||width=20|*|width=20||width=20||width=20||width=20||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1991|Group Stage|3|0|0|3|0|12|−12||||||||
|1995|Quarter Final|4|1|0|3|2|8|−6||||||||
|1999|Group Stage|3|0|1|2|1|10|−9||||||||
|2003|Group Stage|3|1|0|2|7|6|+1||||||||
|2007|Group Stage|3|1|1|1|3|3|0||||||||
|2011|**Champions**|6|4|1|1|12|6|+6||||||||
|2015|Runner-up|7|6|0|1|11|8|+3||||||||
|**Total**|7/7|28|13|3|11|34|51|−17||||||||
- _*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks._

|colspan=4|FIFA Women's World Cup Record||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=3|1991|Group stage|**0 – 1**|Loss|
|Group stage|**0 – 8**|Loss|||
|Group stage|**0 – 3**|Loss|||
|rowspan=4|1995|Group stage|**0 – 1**|Loss|
|Group stage|**2 – 1**|Win|||
|Group stage|**0 – 2**|Loss|||
|Quarterfinals|**0 – 4**|Loss|||
|rowspan=3|1999|Group stage|**1 – 1**|Draw|
|Group stage|**0 – 5**|Loss|||
|Group stage|**0 – 4**|Loss|||
|rowspan=3|2003|Group stage|**6 – 0**|Win|
|Group stage|**0 – 3**|Loss|||
|Group stage|**1 – 3**|Loss|||
|rowspan=3|2007|Group stage|**2 – 2**|Draw|
|Group stage|**1 – 0**|Win|||
|Group stage|**0 – 2**|Loss|||
|rowspan=6|2011|Group stage|**2 – 1**|Win|
|Group stage|**4 – 0**|Win|||
|Group stage|**0 – 2**|Loss|||
|Quarterfinals|**1 – 0**|Win|||
|Semifinals|**3 – 1**|Win|||
|Final|**2 – 2 (3–1)**|Win|||
|rowspan=7|2015|Group stage|**1 – 0**|Win|
|Group stage|**2 – 1**|Win|||
|Group stage|**1 – 0**|Win|||
|Round of 16|**2 – 1**|Win|||
|Quarterfinals|**1 – 0**|Win|||
|Semifinals|**2 – 1**|Win|||
|Final|**2 – 5**|Loss|||

### Olympic Games Record

|Hosts / Year|Result|width=20||width=20||width=20|*|width=20||width=20||width=20||width=20||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1996|Round 1|3|0|0|3|2|9|−7||||||||
|2000|Didn't Qualify|-|-|-|-|-|-|-||||||||
|2004|Quarterfinals|3|1|0|2|2|3|−1||||||||
|2008|4th Place|6|2|1|3|11|10|+1||||||||
|2012|Finals|5|3|2|0|6|2|+4||||||||
|**Total**|4/5|17|6|3|8|21|24|−2||||||||
- _*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks._

|colspan=4|Olympic Games Record||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=3|1996|Round 1|**2 – 3**|Loss|
|Round 1|**0 – 2**|Loss|||
|Round 1|**0 – 4**|Loss|||
|rowspan=3|2004|Round 1|**1 – 0**|Win|
|Round 1|**0 – 1**|Loss|||
|Quarterfinals|**1 – 2**|Loss|||
|rowspan=6|2008|Round 1|**2 – 2**|Draw|
|Round 1|**0 – 1**|Loss|||
|Round 1|**5 – 1**|Win|||
|Quarterfinals|**2 – 0**|Win|||
|Semifinals|**2 – 4**|Loss|||
|Third-place|**0 – 2**|Loss|||
|rowspan=6|2012|Round 1|**2 – 1**|Win|
|Round 1|**0 – 0**|Draw|||
|Round 1|**0 – 0**|Draw|||
|Quarterfinals|**2 – 0**|Win|||
|Semifinals|**2 – 1**|Win|||
|Final|** – **|Loss|||

## Coaches

- Seiki Ichihara (1981)
- Takao Orii (1984)
- Ryohei Suzuki (1986-1989)
- Tamotsu Suzuki (1989-1996)
- Satoshi Miyauchi (1997-1999)
- Tamotsu Suzuki (1999)
- Shinobu Ikeda (2000-2002)
- Eiji Ueda (2002-2004)
- Hiroshi Ohashi (2004-2007)
- Norio Sasaki (2008-2016)
- Asako Takakura (2016-)

## Related pages

- Sports in Japan
- Japan at the Olympics
- Japan national football team
- List of Japan women's international footballers

## Other websites

- Japan Football Association website ; [http://www.jfa.or.jp/ ]

## Infobox (national football team)

- **type**: women
- **name**: Japan
- **badge size**: 180px
- **nickname**: なでしこジャパン (_Yamato nadeshiko, Nadeshiko Japan_)
- **association**: Japan Football Association
- **sub-confederation**: East Asian Football Federation, EAFF (East Asia)
- **confederation**: Asian Football Confederation, AFC (Asia)
- **coach**: Asako Takakura
- **captain**: Saki Kumagai
- **most caps**: Homare Sawa (205)
- **top scorer**: Homare Sawa (83)
- **fifa trigramme**: JPN
- **fifa max**: 3
- **fifa max date**: December 2011
- **fifa min**: 14
- **fifa min date**: July 2003
- **pattern la1**: _jpn20h
- **pattern b1**: _jpn20h
- **pattern ra1**: _jpn20h
- **pattern sh1**: _jpn20h
- **pattern so1**: _jpn20h
- **leftarm1**: 4eb2eb
- **body1**: 4eb2eb
- **rightarm1**: 4eb2eb
- **shorts1**: 000080
- **socks1**: 4eb2eb
- **pattern la2**: _jpn18a
- **pattern b2**: _jpn18a
- **pattern ra2**: _jpn18a
- **pattern sh2**: _jpn18a
- **pattern so2**: _jpn18a
- **leftarm2**: DADADA
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- **socks2**: DADADA
- **first game**: 1–0
(Hong Kong; 7 June 1981)
- **largest win**: 21–0
(Guangzhou, China; 5 December 1997)
- **largest loss**: 9–0
(Tokyo, Japan; 9 September 1981)
 9–0
(Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte, United States; 29 April 1999)
- **world cup apps**: 8
- **world cup first**: 1991
- **world cup best**: **Champions** (2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, 2011)
- **regional name**: Football at the Summer Olympics, Olympic Games
- **regional cup apps**: 4
- **regional cup first**: Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics, 1996
- **regional cup best**: Runners-up (Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012)
- **2ndregional name**: AFC Women's Asian Cup, Asian Cup
- **2ndregional cup apps**: 16
- **2ndregional cup first**: 1977 AFC Women's Championship, 1977
- **2ndregional cup best**: **Champions** (2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup, 2014, 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup, 2018)