Hotaru Yamaguchi

is a Japanese football player. He played for the Japan national team.

## Biography

Yamaguchi was born in Nabari on October 6, 1990. He joined J2 League club Cerezo Osaka from their youth team in 2009. Cerezo was promoted to J1 League from 2010. He played many matches as defensive midfielder from 2011. In 2013, he played all 34 matches and was selected Best Eleven award. However Cerezo was relegated to J2 end of the 2014 season. In January 2016, he moved to German Bundesliga club Hannover. However he could not play many matches and Hannover was relegated to 2. Bundesliga end of the 2015/16 season. In summer 2016, he returned to Cerezo and Cerezo was promoted to J1 end of the 2016 season. In 2017, Cerezo won the champions in the J.League Cup and Emperor's Cup. He was also selected for the Best Eleven award. In 2019, he moved to Vissel Kobe. Vissel won the champions in the 2019 Emperor's Cup which is first major title in the club history.

In July 2012, Yamaguchi was selected for the Japan U-23 national team for 2012 Summer Olympics. He played all 6 matches as defensive midfielder and Japan got fourth place. In July 2013, he was selected for the Japan national team for 2013 East Asian Cup. At this tournament, he debuted against China on July 21. In 2014, he was selected for Japan in the 2014 World Cup and played all 3 matches. In 2018, he played at the 2018 World Cup and Japan qualified to the knockout stage.

### Club

|rowspan="2"|Club|rowspan="2"|Season|colspan="3"|League|colspan="2"|National Cup|colspan="2"|League Cup|colspan="2"|Continental|colspan="2"|Other|colspan="2"|Total|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="11"|Cerezo Osaka|2009|J2 League|3|0|0|0|–|–|–|3|0||||
|2010|rowspan="5"|J1 League|2|0|0|0|2|0|–|–|4|0||||
|2011|17|1|4|0|0|0|2|0|–|23|1|||||
|2012|30|2|4|2|6|0|–|–|40|4||||||
|2013|34|6|0|0|8|1|–|–|42|7||||||
|2014|19|1|1|0|0|0|8|0|–|28|1|||||
|2015|rowspan="2"|J2 League|35|1|0|0|–|–|2|0|37|1||||
|2016|19|1|1|0|–|–|2|0|22|1||||||
|2017|rowspan="2"|J1 League|32|2|5|1|2|0|–|–|39|3||||
|2018|33|0|1|0|1|0|4|0|–|39|0|||||
|Hannover 96|2015–16|Bundesliga|6|0|0|0|–|–|–|6|0|||||
|rowspan="4"|Vissel Kobe|2019|rowspan="3"|J1 League|34|3|5|2|2|1|–|–|41|6||
|2020|34|6|–|1|0|7|1|–|42|7||||||
|2021|5|0|0|0|1|0|–|–|6|0||||||

### International

|National team|Year|Apps|Goals||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="7"|Japan|2013|8|0|
|2014|7|0|||
|2015|9|1|||
|2016|6|1|||
|2017|8|0|||
|2018|7|0|||
|2019|3|1|||

- _Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Yamaguchi goal._

|scope="col"|No.|scope="col"|Date|scope="col"|Venue|scope="col"|Opponent|scope="col"|Score|scope="col"|Result|scope="col"|Competition|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|5 August 2015|Wuhan Sports Center Stadium, Wuhan, China||1–1|1–1|2015 EAFF East Asian Cup||||||||
|2|6 October 2016|Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan||2–1|2–1|2018 FIFA World Cup qualification||||||||
|3|19 November 2019|Panasonic Stadium Suita, Suita, Japan||1–4|1–4|2019 Kirin Challenge Cup||||||||

## Honours

**Cerezo Osaka**
- Emperor's Cup: 2017
- J.League Cup: 2017
- Japanese Super Cup: 2018

**Vissel Kobe**
- J1 League: 2023
- Emperor's Cup: 2019
- Japanese Super Cup: 2020

**Japan**
- EAFF East Asian Cup: 2013

**Japan U-23**
- Asian Games: 2010

**Individual**
- EAFF East Asian Cup Most Valuable Player: 2013
- J.League Best XI: 2013, 2017, 2023

## Infobox (football biography)

- **name**: Hotaru Yamaguchi
- **image**: Hotaru Yamaguchi.jpg
- **caption**: Yamaguchi lining up for Japan national football team, Japan at the 2018 FIFA World Cup
- **full name**: Hotaru Yamaguchi
- **birth place**: Nabari, Mie, Nabari, Mie prefecture, Mie, Japan
- **height**: 1.74 m
- **currentclub**: Vissel Kobe
- **clubnumber**: 96
- **position**: Midfielder (association football)#Defensive midfielder, Defensive midfielder
- **youthyears1**: 2003–2008
- **youthclubs1**: Cerezo Osaka
- **years1**: 2009–2015
- **clubs1**: Cerezo Osaka
- **caps1**: 140
- **goals1**: 11
- **years2**: 2016
- **clubs2**: Hannover 96
- **caps2**: 6
- **goals2**: 0
- **years3**: 2016–2018
- **clubs3**: Cerezo Osaka
- **caps3**: 84
- **goals3**: 3
- **years4**: 2019–
- **clubs4**: Vissel Kobe
- **caps4**: 165
- **goals4**: 20
- **nationalyears1**: 2010–2012
- **nationalteam1**: Japan national under-23 football team, Japan U23
- **nationalcaps1**: 29
- **nationalgoals1**: 1
- **nationalyears2**: 2013–2019
- **nationalteam2**: Japan national football team, Japan
- **nationalcaps2**: 48
- **nationalgoals2**: 3
- **club-update**: 3 December 2023 (UTC)
- **ntupdate**: 19 November 2019