Japan national football team
The Japanese team is commonly known by the fans and media as , , or as abbreviated expressions. Although the team does not have an official nickname as such, it is often known by the name of the manager. For example, under Takeshi Okada, the team was known as . Recently, the team has been known or nicknamed as the "Samurai Blue", while Japanese news media during the 2018 FIFA World Cup still referred it to by the recently departed manager's (Akira Nishino) last name, as .
2015 Japan national football team
The Japan national football team in 2015; managed by head coach Javier Aguirre compete in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, and managed by head coach Vahid Halilhodžić compete in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC) and 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup in amongst international friendly matches both at home and abroad.