Japan national under-23 football team
The Japan national under-23 football team（Japanese: U-23サッカー日本代表）is a national association football youth team of Japan and is controlled by the Japan Football Association. The team won the gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games and were champions in the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship. Since 1992, it was decided that teams targeting athletes under the age of 23 will participate in the Olympics (additional provisions for overage limits have been added since 1996). Therefore, the name changes to Japan national under-22 football team the year before the Olympics and Japan national under-21 football team two years prior. The exception to this was the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed one year, so in 2021, the team was called the Japan national under-24 football team. Team image Nicknames "サムライ・ブルー (Samurai Blue)" basically refers to the Japan national football team, but the under-23 football team are sometimes referred to as "Young" Samurai Blue. However, in reality, Samurai Blue is not often used. Rivalries South Korea Japan maintains a strong football rivalry with South Korea, even in youth set-ups. Results and fixtures Legend 2023 U-22 Fixtures & Results (2023), JFA.jp 2022 U-21 Fixtures & Results (2022), JFA.jp Head-to-head record , after the match against