You’ve certainly seen the Japanese flag, one of the most traditional in the world: a simple white board with a red circle in the center. However, the Japanese Football Team has always used the color blue, which has no direct relationship with the country, in its main uniform.
There is no official explanation from the Japanese Football Federation (JFA) as to why blue is used, but it is true that the first time Japan was represented in football was by a Tokyo university that had blue, used on the game uniform.
Since then, the color blue has been officially adopted in the Japanese national team’s uniform. Some claim that success at the 1930 Far East Championship Games was the key point in confirming the color.
Others say that it became official for Japanese football in the 1954 Qualifiers, the first in which the country was able to participate.
There is also a theory that the color was chosen to represent the blue sky and ocean that surrounds the islands that make up Japan.
The fact is that the color blue was embraced by the Japanese Football Federation and has been featured on the national team’s main shirts for decades. Not for nothing, they earned the nickname Blue Samurai.
It is worth noting that Japanese teams in other sports, such as basketball, volleyball and baseball, mostly use white and red uniforms, following the colors of the country’s flag, but they also have some in blue.
Japan at the 2026 World Cup
O is in Group F of the World Cup. In addition to this Sunday’s debut (14) against the Netherlands, they will face Tunisia (21) and Sweden (25) in the group stage.
