Japan’s Women’s Asian Cup triumph over Australia in March was the latest demonstration of a national team that has consistently punched above its weight on the world stage. Nadeshiko won the Women’s World Cup in 2011 and reached another final in 2015, and this year’s Asian Cup title came under the guidance of Nils Nielsen, who has since been succeeded by Michihisa Kano. Most of Japan’s biggest stars now play outside the country, and a significant part of the explanation for that durability lies in a youth development structure run by the Japanese Football Association.
The JFA Academy takes girls from across a country of 123 million people into three academies: Fukushima, Sakai and Imabari. Fukushima was the first to open, in 2006, followed by Sakai in 2012 and Imabari in 2015. A fourth academy, Kumamoto Uki, is for boys only. Japan are typically discreet about the secrets behind their success, but the academies help explain the easy-on-the-eye style that has become a trademark of both the men’s and women’s national teams.
Shota Mishio, an analyst with the national team when they conquered the world in 2011, has recently coached at the Fukushima academy, which has moved to Susono City since the nuclear disaster that preceded Japan’s World Cup success by months. Girls enter the academies at 13 and, other than in Fukushima, leave at 15. At Fukushima, players stay until they are 18 and five technical coaches are dedicated to the girls. “We belong to the JFA, we are a coaching school with accommodation for players,” Mishio says. “The most important information I can give you is 25% of our original players have become senior national team players – that is a very high percentage.”
That output is visible in the senior squad. Five of Japan’s 23 players at the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand had come through Fukushima, and seven were involved at the Paris Olympics a year later — what Mishio describes as a “progression every tournament”.
Manaka Hayashi is one of the more recent success stories. She graduated from the academy in 2022 and, after playing domestically for INAC Kobe, earned a move to the NWSL side Chicago Stars at the start of 2025, making 38 league appearances. In September she joined Juventus, where she is capable of operating as a playmaker or a box-to-box midfielder. “We all had to apply for it, then the coaches come and watch us try out,” she says of the academy. “There could be 100 to 200 players who could apply, but only half a dozen get selected, so it’s not easy to get selected, it’s quite special.”
It is not only about football. The girls continue their education, with government support: Mishio says the education department helps, and the academy runs its own programme covering English and languages in general, as well as football-specific language for players. Hayashi describes days of school followed by training from around 4pm to 6pm, and a schedule that tilts further towards football with age — at high-school age, school ran only from 9am to noon, leaving more time for the game.
She also describes an environment that extended well beyond the pitch. “When we entered the dorm at 13, the oldest players are 18,” she says. “It’s a big life experience and you definitely learned how to communicate with other people, from different backgrounds and different ages.” On the football itself she is direct about the effect: “It changed me a lot.”
The way of playing is drilled into the players from a young age. “The JFA scouts are always paying attention, but you live it every day, so there is so much opportunity to talk about and learn about football,” Hayashi says. “We would watch it just to help each other become better, analyse everything. That’s the difference between the JFA Academy and being at other clubs.” The coaches, she adds, emphasised that the players had to be better technically, because foreign teams are faster and stronger and Japan had to be smarter to compete, with quality on the ball. Mishio identifies technique and endurance as the main points of the training — and as the trademark of the Japanese style of play.
The academy route increasingly leads abroad. “More and more players want to go abroad,” Mishio says, noting one player who recently joined Feyenoord and one before that who went to Bayern Munich, while others prefer to become professionals in Japan first. The group of Japan internationals in England includes Manchester City’s Yui Hasegawa and Chelsea’s summer acquisition Manaka Matsukubo, and Hayashi’s switch from Chicago to Juventus in September is the latest example of the pipeline feeding Europe’s leading clubs.