Japan national under-23 football team

Japan U-23

Nickname(s)	Olympic Japan
Association	Japan Football Association
Confederation	AFC (Asia)
Sub-confederation	EAFF (East Asia)
Head coach	Go Oiwa
Most caps	Mao Hosoya (35)
Top scorer	Shoya Nakajima (19)
FIFA code	JPN
First colours Second colours
First international
Malaysia 1–1 Japan  (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; December 1990)[1]
Biggest win
Japan 13–0 Philippines  (Hong Kong; 12 June 1999)
Biggest defeat
Denmark 6–1 Japan  (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 6 February 1994)
Olympic Games
Appearances	8 (first in 1996)
Best result	Fourth place (2012, 2020)
Asian Games
Appearances	6 (first in 2002)
Best result	Gold medalists (2010)
AFC U-23 Asian Cup
Appearances	6 (first in 2013)
Best result	Champions (2016, 2024)

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. At the 2024 Olympics, they advanced to the Knockout stage without three overage players and several key players.