The Japan–South Korea football rivalry is a rivalry between the Japan national football team and South Korea national football team, and is one of the Japan–South Korea sports rivalries. The two have played each other officially since 1954. These matches are known as Nikkansen (Japanese: 日韓戦) or Haniljeon (Korean: 한일전) in their respective languages.

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Japan–South Korea football rivalry

Japan and South Korea contesting the 2010 East Asian Football Championship
Location	Asia (AFC) East Asia (EAFF)
Teams	Japan  South Korea
First meeting	7 March 1954[1] 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification Japan 1–5 South Korea
Latest meeting	27 July 2022 2022 EAFF Championship Japan 3–0 South Korea
Statistics
Meetings total	81[lower-greek 1]
Top scorer	Kunishige Kamamoto (7)
All-time series	Japan: 16[lower-greek 1] South Korea: 42[lower-greek 1] Draw: 23
Largest victory	South Korea 5–1 Japan 7 March 1954 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification
Japan South Korea

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The historical and regional conflicts between Japan and South Korea, including Japanese occupation of Korea until 1945, have greatly influenced the football rivalry between the two countries.^[5] Their first encounter in football was a two-legged qualifier for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Both matches were held in Japan, with the South Korean government banning the Japan national team from entering their country at the time. South Korea qualified for the 1954 World Cup after defeating Japan 7–3 on aggregate.^[6] The two countries also met in the two-legged final of the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification, and South Korea once again advanced to the World Cup by winning 3–1 on aggregate.

Japan conceded the World Cup berth to South Korea one more time despite a 1–0 derby win in 1994. Japan claimed the top spot before the last match in Asia's round-robin tournament, but was overtaken by Saudi Arabia and South Korea after drawing 2–2 with Iraq in that match. The draw between Japan and Iraq was called the "Agony of Doha" in Japan and the "Miracle of Doha" in South Korea.^[5]

The "Japan–South Korea Regular Match" was held 15 times from 1972 to 1991, and South Korea led the event with 10 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses.^[7] Its revival was steadily expected by the press,^[8][9][10] but on the contrary, there were no "A" team matches between the two countries for ten years between 2011 and 2021, apart from the games at the EAFF Championship. Some of the causes were scheduling conflicts and poor diplomatic relations.^[11]

South Korea overwhelmingly led the first 50 matches with 32 wins, 11 draws and 7 losses, but the rivalry has become a very close contest since the early 1990s following the establishment of the J.League.^[7] From 2021 to 2023, South Korea suffered five consecutive defeats against Japan at all age levels of men's football, all by the same scoreline of 3–0, including the "A" team friendly on 25 March 2021.^{[note 1]} In 2023, JoongAng Ilbo surveyed 30 executives in the Korea Football Association, mostly K League club administrators, and 80% agreed that Japan overtook South Korea ten years ago.^{[24][25][26][27]}

The highest level of matches which the two nations could contest are the FIFA World Cup, FIFA World Cup qualification and the AFC Asian Cup. As of 2024, their last meeting at these levels dates back to the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. They have never met at the FIFA World Cup.

In the EAFF Championships, both countries field mostly players from their domestic leagues rather than their best players based in Europe.^[28] Depending on their respective amount of Europe-based players, an East Asian Football Championship squad is effectively a second, third or fourth national squad.^[29]

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