Japan meet South Korea at the Asian Games
Updated 2026-09-29The women's football tournament at the Asian Games brings Japan up against South Korea, an opponent that always changes the temperature of a match. Japan have been playing every few days since 14 September, so rotation and freshness matter here as much as the rivalry itself. With very few fixtures inside this window, it is a short edition built around a single game.
Nadeshiko
· Tue, 29 Sep 2026 19:30 JST
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Japan and South Korea renew their rivalry at the Asian Games
- Japan and South Korea last shared a pitch on 18 March at Accor Stadium in Sydney during the AFC Women's Asian Cup, and barely half a year later the fixture comes around again — this time on Japanese soil. A 19:30 Tokyo kick-off makes it one of the easier nights of the tournament to catch at home.
- Japan have worked through this tournament at a relentless clip: Thailand on 14 September, Vietnam on the 17th, Chinese Taipei on the 21st and the Philippines on the 25th, all at Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa with only two or three days in between. Squad management has been part of the story from the opening whistle, and the team sheet will show exactly where the staff felt they could afford to rotate.
- This is not the group built around Manchester City's Yui Hasegawa or London City Lionesses captain Saki Kumagai — the Asian Games squad is a different generation of Nadeshiko entirely. In goal alone, S. Ohba, N. Asano and S. Fukuda have taken turns since the tournament opened. For players making their names at home and around Asia, a match against South Korea is about as big a stage as they will find.