2023 Emperor's Cup
The 2023 Emperor's Cup (Emperor's Cup JFA 103rd Japan Football Championship (Japanese: 天皇杯 JFA 第103回全日本サッカー選手権大会)) is the 103rd edition of the annually contested cup, starting on 20 May. The format for 2023 does not present any changes from the previous edition. It features 88 teams representing the prefectural football associations, J1 League, J2 League and Japan Football League. JFL's Honda FC was once again chosen to be the annually specially-designated amateur club. Ventforet Kofu were the defending champions, after a cinderella story for the J2 club saw them qualify for the final, which they won on penalties against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, after a 1–1 draw in regulation time, but were eliminated by Vissel Kobe in the round of 16. Qualifying rounds
As only J1 and J2 League clubs qualify directly for the first round, teams from outside of it who wants to qualify to the Emperor's Cup (exception being made to the JFA-seeded team), had to, as usual, undergo a prefectural qualification, with regulations and schedules varying from one association to another. In total, there are 47 prefectural cup qualifications, with the winners of each prefectural cup having earned their right to play in the Emperor's Cup, with all of them assigned to start the competition in the first round. Participating clubs

J1 League
All 18 teams playing in the 2023 J1 League entered in the second round. J2 League
All 22 teams playing in the 2023 J2 League entered in the second round. Amateur designated team
One team selected from the Japan Football League. It entered in the first round. Prefectural tournaments
All the 47 prefectural tournaments winners. They all entered in the first round. Note: In the sections below, club tiers (league levels) are presented as follows:
 National: (1): J1 League; (2): J2 League; (3): J3 League; (4): Japan Football League
 Regional (senior): (5): Regional Leagues 1st Divs. ; (6): Regional Leagues 2nd Divs. Regional (university): (5): University Regional Leagues 1st Divs. ; (6): University Regional Leagues 2nd and 3rd Divs. Prefectural (senior): (7): Prefectural Leagues 1st Divs. Prefectural (university): (7): University Prefectural Leagues 1st Divs. Others (7+): Below the Prefectural Leagues 1st Divs., unknown or not affiliated with any league. Calendar
The schedule from the first round to the quarter-finals was announced on 20 December 2022. The semi-finals and the final did not have its dates released by the Japan Football Association, as uncertainties around the schedule of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup left doubts about possible re-schedule of one or more rounds of the Emperor's Cup. The decision was also made to avoid schedule conflict for teams whose squads would have one or more players participating in the competition. Tournament schedule

First round
The match pairings was decided on 22 March 2023. Except for Honda FC, who was granted a bye from prefectural qualifications due to their "amateur designated team" status, no other club had yet qualified to the tournament when the draw was conducted. Second round

All the 2023 J1 and J2 League clubs enter the competition in this round. Most of these professional clubs hosted their matches in their own prefecture. However, as the number of teams from these leagues combined does not match the amount of host teams required, some of these teams had to play their matches away from home. These specific away teams either finished between the 15th to 20th place on last season's J2 or got promoted from the J3 League for the 2023 season, and played their ties against teams that finished between the 7th and 14th place on last season's J2. Third round

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Top scorers

References

External links
 Tournament outline, JFA.jp
 Schedule and results, JFA.jp
 Team introduction, JFA.jp
 Japanese TV and online broadcast, JFA.jp

Emperor's Cup
Japan
2023 in Japanese football