Japan aims to break into the top ten globally

Masakuni Yamamoto, director of Japanese national teams and head of the technical committee at the Japan Football Association, has announced that reaching the top ten in the FIFA World Ranking is one of the upcoming goals for the Japan national team, in order to ensure a place in Pot 1 during the draw for the FIFA World Cup 2030.

Yamamato said: "This is not an easy goal, but when we reach it, the national team will have greater stability, and managing matches and achieving victories will become easier."

"In the past, we used to pay money to look for competitors, but now we receive invitations. The world's perception of us has changed significantly."

Japan's best ranking in history was in 1998 when they reached ninth place globally, while their thirteenth place in 2011 was their best finish since the current ranking system was adopted. The Japanese national team currently occupies seventeenth place in the FIFA World Cup rankings.