How Japan’s JFA academies transformed the women’s national side

On 13 October 2026 a report detailed how Japan’s JFA Academy network has helped strengthen the women’s national team, tracing player development from the country’s residential academies to international squads and clubs abroad.

Japan’s women have a history of success — they won the Women’s World Cup in 2011 and reached the final in 2015 — and this year captured the Women’s Asian Cup under Nils Nielsen before Michihisa Kano succeeded him; many of the nation’s top players now play outside Japan, with 24 contracted to Women’s Super League clubs alone.

The JFA established three girls’ academies — Fukushima, Sakai and Imabari — while a fourth, Kumamoto Uki, is for boys only; Fukushima opened in 2006, Sakai in 2012 and Imabari in 2015. Shota Mishio, who worked as an analyst for the national team in 2011 and has recently coached at the Fukushima academy, said the Fukushima programme moved to Susono City after the nuclear disaster that preceded their World Cup success by months.

Intake and staffing differ between sites: girls typically enter the academies at 13 and, other than in Fukushima, leave at 15. "The players are here until the age of 18," Mishio says of Fukushima, which has five technical coaches dedicated to the girls. "We belong to the JFA, we are a coaching school with accommodation for players … 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."

The academies’ impact on national selection is cited with tournament numbers: at the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, five of Japan’s 23 players had come through the Fukushima academy, and at the Paris Olympics a year later it was seven, Mishio pointing to a "progression every tournament". Manaka Hayashi, a 2022 graduate, progressed from INAC Kobe to the NWSL’s Chicago Stars at the start of 2025 and left the NWSL for Juventus last month. "We all had to apply for it, then the coaches come and watch us try out," she says.

The JFA emphasises education alongside football. "The government helps," Mishio says. "For example, the education department helps us. We here specifically work only on football as coaches, but we have our own original programme for things like English, languages in general, and even football-specific language for football players." Hayashi described the routine: "We would go to school from morning to evening and then come back to train around 4pm to 6pm. At high school age, we would go to school only 9am to 12pm and train more, so there is much more time for football as you get older." She also reflected on dorm life and daily study of the game: "When we entered the dorm at 13, the oldest players are 18. It’s a big life experience and you definitely learned how to communicate with other people, from different backgrounds and different ages." "Football-wise it changed me a lot. 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. 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 pathway is producing players who move overseas; Mishio noted: "More and more players want to go abroad. For example, one player recently went to Feyenoord and before that one went to Bayern Munich. Some others want to become professional in Japan first." The group of Japan internationals playing in England includes Manchester City’s Yui Hasegawa and Chelsea’s summer acquisition Manaka Matsukubo, and there is strong Japanese representation in the NWSL.

Technical and physical preparation is a stated focus of the academies. "I’d say yes," says Hayashi, adding: "The coaches emphasised a lot we had to be better technically. When you play against foreign teams, they are faster and stronger than us, so we had to be smarter to compete against them with quality on the ball. We had to be skilful on the ball to become better than other countries." Mishio said: "The important thing is the technique and endurance. These are the main points of the training here, because it was the trademark of the Japanese style of play."

The academies’ contribution is measurable in selection figures and transfers: five Fukushima graduates were in Japan’s 23-player 2023 World Cup squad and seven were at the Paris Olympics, and several academy alumni have since moved to clubs overseas, underlining the system’s role in supplying players for national tournaments and professional moves abroad.