The coach who once brought humiliation to Korean football is virtually confirmed as the head coach of Japan's A national team... also serving as the Olympic representative team coach concurrently

*This content was translated by AI.

The new head coach to lead Japan's men's national football team has been virtually confirmed: Kō Oiwara (54), currently the head coach of Japan's U21 Olympic representative team. He is also the coach who recently brought "humiliation" to Korean football, and he is scheduled to take office next March while concurrently serving as the head coach for both the A national team and the U21 representative team.

Japanese media outlet Sports Nippon reported on the 15th that "Coach Kō Oiwara has been virtually confirmed as Hajime Moriyasu's successor" and added, "He will serve concurrently as the Olympic team coach and is expected to make his A national team debut in March next year."

According to reports, the Japan Football Association (JFA) has virtually confirmed Coach Oiwara as the sole candidate to succeed Hajime Moriyasu (58), whose short-term contract extension until the AFC Asian Cup in January next year is highly likely. This means Japan will continue its system of having a Japanese national coach from Nishino Akira during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, through Coach Moriyasu, and now to Coach Oiwara.

The media explained that "the JFA's unusual six-month contract extension offer presented to Coach Moriyasu was reportedly designed with the assumption of Coach Oiwara's appointment." It further stated, "Considering schedules for the Asian Games and the 2028 LA Olympics Asian qualifiers, they examined appropriate generational transition plans and determined that starting next March, Coach Oiwara would be able to simultaneously lead both the A national team and the U21 (U22 next year) representative team."

It continued, "The JFA considered foreign candidates with world-class careers but decided to maintain a Japanese coach system after weighing factors such as the need for a budget of 1 billion to 2 billion yen (approximately 9.2 billion to 18.4 billion won) for recruitment and the direction to continue developing Japan-style football that has been carried forward since Coach Nishino." It added, "Coach Oiwara maintains close ties with Coach Moriyasu, and the JFA highly evaluated this as a factor ensuring that even if the head coach changes, the basic philosophy and system of the national team can be maintained."

Coach Oiwara has long been recognized for his coaching abilities and has been a prominent candidate for Japan's next A national team head coach within Japan. After being promoted to head coach of Kashima Antlers in the Japanese J League in 2017, he led the team to victory in the AFC Champions League the following year. At the 2024 Paris Olympics last year, he guided Japan to the quarterfinals without a wildcard entry, and as a result, it was decided for the first time in Japanese football history that the Olympic team coach would be retained, and he is now preparing for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Japan's back-to-back victories at the 2024 and 2026 AFC U23 Asian Cup tournaments were also achievements under Coach Oiwara's leadership. In particular, in the quarterfinals of the tournament held last January in Saudi Arabia, they defeated South Korea, led by Coach Lee Min-seong, 1-0 to reach the final and claim the championship. At that time, while South Korea fielded a U23 team and Japan a U21 team, South Korea still lost. From the perspective of Korean football, this was a humiliating defeat against a Japanese representative team two years younger.

Sports Nippon stated, "Coach Oiwara has firmly established his coaching credentials by leading a U21 representative team, which is two years younger than other teams, to back-to-back titles at the U23 Asian Cup last January." It further explained, "The core of the Moriyasu era, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics generation, will mostly be in their 30s by the time of the 2030 World Cup, making a generational transition inevitable. The fact that Coach Moriyasu successfully led both the A national team and the Olympic representative team to achieve a natural generational transition also served as a positive factor in promoting Coach Oiwara's concurrent coaching system."

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*This content was translated by AI.