The China–Japan football rivalry is a competitive sports rivalry that exists between the national football teams of the two countries, as well as their respective sets of fans. Historical tensions had stemmed this rivalry into one of the most heated rivalries in Asia and the world.[1]
Prior to the 1990s, China were one of Asia's dominant men's football teams while football in Japan was still limited to amateur levels, partly due to little interest in development for the sport. Thus, Japan suffered many defeats to China. But with the rapid rise of the Japanese men's national team since the 1990s, the tide has turned. Nowadays, Japan have become far more successful than China in men's football, winning four AFC Asian Cups and have played in every FIFA World Cup since 1998, while China are runners-up in two Asian Cups (one on home soil) and qualified for just one World Cup in 2002, which Japan co-hosted along with South Korea.
^Mangan, J.A.; Kim, Hyun-Duck; Cruz, Angelita; Kang, Gi-Heun (2013). "Rivalries: China, Japan and South Korea – Memory, Modernity, Politics, Geopolitics – and Sport". The International Journal of the History of Sport. 30 (10): 1130–1152. doi:10.1080/09523367.2013.800046. S2CID154388658.
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