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.
2010 Japan national football team
The Japan national football team in 2010, managed by head coach Takeshi Okada, began by competing in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification and the 2010 East Asian Football Championship in amongst other international friendly matches in the build-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals where they would finish in 9th place. Afterwards the team, managed first by interim head coach Hiromi Hara and finally head coach Alberto Zaccheroni, would close out 2010 with several more international friendly matches as they prepared for the 2011 Asian Cup and the 2011 Copa América in the following year.