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The Most Famous

SOCCER PLAYERS from Japan

This page contains a list of the greatest Japanese Soccer Players. The pantheon dataset contains 16,880 Soccer Players, 4,198 of which were born in Japan. This makes Japan the birth place of the most number of Soccer Players.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Japanese Soccer Players of all time. This list of famous Japanese Soccer Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Japanese Soccer Players.

1. Kazuyoshi Miura (1967 - )

With an HPI of 63.61, Kazuyoshi Miura is the most famous Japanese Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 62 different languages on wikipedia.

Kazuyoshi Miura (三浦知良, Miura Kazuyoshi, born 26 February 1967), often known simply as Kazu (nicknamed "King Kazu"), is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Liga Portugal 2 club Oliveirense, on loan from J1 League club Yokohama FC. He is the oldest professional footballer in history and the oldest player to score in a professional match. He played for the Japan national team from 1990 to 2000, and was the first Japanese recipient of the IFFHS Asia's Footballer of the Year award. Miura, whose rise to fame in Japan coincided with the launch of the J.League in 1993, was arguably Japan's first superstar in football. He is also known for his trademark "Kazu Feint" and his famous "Kazu dance", when he scores notable goals or produces such plays. Miura holds the records for being the oldest goalscorer in the J-League, the footballer with the world's longest professional career, and, as of 2024, is the oldest professional footballer in the world at 57. He also holds the unique distinction of having played professional football in five separate decades (1980s–2020s). His elder brother Yasutoshi is a former professional footballer.

2. Kakuichi Mimura (1931 - 2022)

With an HPI of 63.09, Kakuichi Mimura is the 2nd most famous Japanese Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 52 different languages.

Kakuichi Mimura (三村恪一, Mimura Kakuichi, 16 August 1931 – 19 February 2022) was a Japanese football player and manager. He played for the Japan national team.

3. Kunishige Kamamoto (1944 - )

With an HPI of 62.42, Kunishige Kamamoto is the 3rd most famous Japanese Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 60 different languages.

Kunishige Kamamoto (釜本邦茂, Kamamoto Kunishige, born 15 April 1944) is a former Japanese football player, manager, and politician. He won the bronze medal with the Japan national team at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, finishing as the tournament's top scorer with seven goals, and is the all-time leading goalscorer for Japan. Kamamoto served as the Vice-President of the Japan Football Association from July 1998 to July 2008. In 2005, he was inducted in the Japan Football Hall of Fame. He also served as a member of the House of Councillors between 1995 and 2001.

Pantheon has 4,198 people classified as soccer players born between 1891 and 2003. Of these 4,198, 4,086 (97.33%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living soccer players include Kazuyoshi Miura, Kunishige Kamamoto, and Ko Arima. The most famous deceased soccer players include Kakuichi Mimura, Yozo Aoki, and Hideo Sakai. As of April 2022, 159 new soccer players have been added to Pantheon including Kaoru Mitoma, Reo Hatate, and Bin Ukishima.