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 Australian rules football team
Since its inception, the team has been nicknamed the "Samurai". The team wears the national colours of Japan: red, white and also black; however there has been several design variations in the team's jumper, including a clash strip used when playing teams like Canada. For the 2005 International Cup, the side wore the colours in a vertical pattern (similar to the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League) with the official Samurais' logo featuring a caricature of a samurai warrior. In 2006, the design featured a predominantly black stripe with white stars and red trim. For the 2008 International Cup, the team reverted to a predominantly white strip with a red sash.