Shinji Murai

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

Biography
Murai was born in Chiba on December 1, 1979. He joined his local club JEF United Ichihara (later JEF United Chiba) from their youth team in 1998. He became a regular player as left midfielder from 2001. The club won the 3rd place in the 2001 and 2003 J1 League. He moved to Júbilo Iwata with teammate Takayuki Chano in 2005. He played many matches until 2009 except when he injured in 2006. He left the club with Chano end of 2009 season for generational change and he returned to JEF United Chiba with Chano in 2010. He moved to Oita Trinita in 2012 and played until 2013.

In July 2005, Murai was selected the Japan national team for 2005 East Asian Football Championship. At this tournament, on August 3, he debuted against China. He played 5 games for Japan between 2005 and 2006.

Statistics

|-
|1998||rowspan="7"|JEF United Ichihara||rowspan="7"|J1 League||4||1||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||4||1
|-
|1999||1||0||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||3||0
|-
|2000||2||0||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||4||0
|-
|2001||25||1||3||0||5||0||colspan="2"|-||33||1
|-
|2002||26||2||0||0||5||2||colspan="2"|-||31||4
|-
|2003||29||2||3||3||3||0||colspan="2"|-||35||5
|-
|2004||29||1||1||0||5||0||colspan="2"|-||35||1
|-
|2005||rowspan="5"|Júbilo Iwata||rowspan="5"|J1 League||30||0||3||0||1||0||4||0||38||0
|-
|2006||11||1||0||0||2||1||colspan="2"|-||13||2
|-
|2007||23||2||0||0||5||0||colspan="2"|-||28||2
|-
|2008||24||0||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||26||0
|-
|2009||24||1||1||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||29||0
|-
|2010||rowspan="2"|JEF United Chiba||rowspan="2"|J2 League||4||1||2||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||6||1
|-
|2011||18||2||2||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||20||2
|-
|2012||rowspan="2"|Oita Trinita||J2 League||37||5||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||37||5
|-
|2013||J1 League||7||0||0||0||3||0||colspan="2"|-||10||0
294||19||15||3||39||3||4||0||352||25
294||19||15||3||39||3||4||0||352||25
|}
Japan National Football Team Database

|-
|2005||3||0
|-
|2006||2||0
|-
!Total||5||0
|}

References

Other websites

Category:1979 births
Category:Living people
Category:Footballers from Chiba Prefecture
Category:Japan international footballers
Category:J1 League players
Category:J2 League players
Category:JEF United Chiba players
Category:Júbilo Iwata players
Category:Oita Trinita players