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 .
Japan–South Korea football rivalry
The Japan and South Korea national football teams are sporting rivals who have played each other officially since 1954. They have had 79 matches so far. The match between the two countries is often shorten as "nikkansen" (Japanese: 日韓戦) or "haniljeon" (Korean: 한일전/韓日戰) in their respective languages. The most recent match ended up with Korea winning with a score of 4–1