Japan national football team
Japan is the first team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América, having been invited in both 1999 and 2011. However, Japan declined their invitation on 16 May 2011, after events related to the difficulty of releasing some Japanese players from European teams to play as replacements. On 17 May 2011, CONMEBOL invited Costa Rica to replace Japan in the competition; the Costa Rican Football Federation accepted their invitation later that day.
Japan national cerebral palsy football team
Japan was ranked sixteenth in the world by the IFCPF in 2016. The team is also ranked third regionally in Asia-Oceania. Japan was ranked thirteenth in July 2011, September 2012 and November 2014. In August 2013,Japan was ranked fourteenth.