Japan’s 1992 – Japan’s “100-year vision” is being treated like more than a slogan after Hajime Moriyasu’s side started their World Cup campaign with a 2-2 draw against the Netherlands and a 4-0 dismantling of Tunisia. With Sweden next and key absences to consider, the story
For 90 minutes against Tunisia, Japan didn’t just look comfortable. They looked built for momentum.
Hajime Moriyasu’s side started the match in a way that felt almost inevitable: they led 2-0. then pushed the game further out of reach. Ayase Ueda—rated as a £70million striker and top scorer in the Eredivisie with 24 goals—put his stamp on the rout. finishing off a stunning move that began with Ao Tanaka passing through the lines to Ueda. From there, Ueda’s flicked assist for Junya Ito to score was one of the tournament’s defining moments.
Then came the second strike. Ueda scored again to complete Japan’s fourth goal of the night, as Tunisia were left chasing answers rather than moments.
It’s a run that has turned plenty of heads already. In their opening two World Cup games. Japan twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with the Netherlands. then dismantled Tunisia 4-0. Next up is Sweden tonight—and the question bouncing through bars and living rooms across the globe is simple: how far can Japan go in this tournament?.
Pep Guardiola added weight to the shift in perception. He said Japan can no longer be regarded as underdogs—not when Moriyasu can routinely field 11 players operating in Europe’s top five leagues, and not when Japan have beaten Brazil, England, Germany and Spain in the past four years.
Still, the mood isn’t unbroken. Expectations can be tempered by the absence of key men Kaoru Mitoma, Wataru Endo and Takumi Minamino. There’s also the concern that Japan could face Brazil or Morocco on the ‘wrong side’ of the draw. And there’s Japan’s own defining trait—an unusually humble. cautious nature—that doesn’t let them sprint ahead of the moment.
That humility is precisely why the talk of a “100-year plan” has landed with such force.
The phrase was referenced by Ange Postecoglou on ITV after Japan’s 2-2 draw with the Netherlands. The Australian—who managed Yokohama F Marinos and guided them to the J League title in 2019—spoke about the way Japan thinks in long arcs.
“I loved my time there, you grow as a person when you experience different cultures,” Postecoglou said. “They see themselves as a developing nation and have a clear plan about what they want to do. The 100-year vision for their football they are following meticulously.”
Postecoglou also pushed back against the timescale, telling them: “Look, you’re not at year 20 you’re at year 60,” while still stressing how methodical they are about it. Once that belief is established, he added, Japan can beat the best nations—and could one day win the World Cup.
Yet there’s a detail that matters, and it’s where the story becomes more interesting than the headline vision itself. There’s a common misconception between the J League’s Hundred Year Vision, set out in 1992, and the JFA’s own long-term plan to win the World Cup by 2050, formulated in 2005.
Both are long-range. Both are deeply Japanese. But they are not the same roadmap.
In 1992, the mission included pledges to “create a square covered with green grass and sports facilities in your town” and to “promote futsal while building a system that allows families and communities to enjoy it easily.”
Sean Carroll. a football journalist in Tokyo and author of *Between the Lines: Navigating the World of Japanese Football*. points to how the groundwork fed the next decades. “The Japanese game’s long-term. detailed approach has certainly worked wonders in the last 30-odd years. so it would be incredibly foolish to write them off. ” he said.
He traces the change to clubs rooted in regional communities rather than being affiliated with companies. and to the bonds that created as the level of play improved. Football started to gain more attention in a country where it wasn’t—and still isn’t—the No. 1 sport. Children had something to aspire to. Carroll says. and as they grew up and became J League players. they started moving from Japan to Europe. More youngsters then saw that playing in the biggest leagues was achievable, and the cycle gathered pace.
That shift can be felt in everyday life. When one journalist lived in Osaka from 2012 to 2015, baseball was clearly dominant, but football was making strides. What stood out was the technical level of the players. and the dedication of kids—who join sports clubs and. in some cases notably baseball. practise five days a week. all year round.
Tom Byer, an American coach who finished his playing career in Japan in 1988 and has lived in Tokyo ever since, helped launch a chain of football schools based on the Dutch coach Wiel Coerver. Those sessions focused on ball mastery, quick footwork and one-on-one moves.
The 1992 plan, Byer says, may have offered the perfect backdrop. He became a household name as the face of a popular kids’ TV show and featured in a manga series called *Tomsan’s Let’s Try Soccer*. The ethos was clear: football starts at home—effectively with toddlers having a ball their feet.
“It’s not a football culture in Japan,” Byer said. “You’re not going to get into a cab and the driver talks about how FC Tokyo played. No-one really talks about football in this country, but it is popular.”
What makes Japan tick, he added, is a culture that accepts overtraining. Japanese parents will accept that when their boy or girl crosses the line into organised play at six, they train four times a week, three hours of training, 12 months a year.
“Not many countries will accept that kind of culture,” Byer said. “They specialise here, too. It rewards the early starters. The golden age for skill acquisition is between two and five years old. The Coerver schools also played a major role and the two captains who are unfortunately injured. Endo and Minamino. came through them. A lot of the players in today’s squad will have grown up with that.”.
Byer’s takeaway after watching Japan attack is equally direct: “The technical level of the players is very good. When you see Japan attack, you know that any one of the players can score a goal, they are a real threat.”
Japan’s World Cup history gives weight to the long build. They qualified for their first World Cup in 1998 and have been in every World Cup since. It’s a humble culture, Byer says, but there are three factors to the development: discipline, repetition and commitment to mastery.
Those are the ingredients that might be turning into something immediate—right now. in a tournament where Japan are already drawing eyes. not hiding from them. The plan may be measured in decades. but the belief it creates is arriving in the present. with Sweden next and Japan’s quiet confidence suddenly louder than ever.
Japan national team World Cup Hajime Moriyasu Ayase Ueda Junya Ito Ao Tanaka Kaoru Mitoma Wataru Endo Takumi Minamino Netherlands vs Japan Tunisia vs Japan Sweden vs Japan J League Hundred Year Vision 1992 Japanese football development Wiel Coerver JFA plan 2050 discipline repetition mastery