Japan Football Association President Tsuneyasu Miyamoto attended a press conference on the 24th regarding Hajime Moriyasu's reappointment, discussing the difficulty of reaching the World Cup quarterfinals and adjustments to the target.
Japan was eliminated in the first knockout round of the CONCACAF World Cup, losing to Brazil and falling short of the final 32. Regarding the team's current level, Miyamoto stated, "After this World Cup, I believe we must improve in all aspects. I feel even more strongly that we must focus on youth training, strengthening, and developing our young talent. Referring to the data from the quarter-finalists, our goal going forward is to produce even better statistics than those of the quarter-finalists in this tournament."
He then mentioned the gap between the goals and the "2005 Declaration" announced by the JFA in 2005. The "2005 Declaration" set the goal of reaching the World Cup semi-finals by 2030 and hosting and winning the World Cup on home soil by 2050. Miyamoto discussed the possibility of revising the goals: "We've never reached the quarter-finals before. After watching the quarter-finals and semi-finals, I felt that it was a very high level. We previously said we 'wanted to see new sights,' which I think meant the quarter-finals, so I've set that as a goal. In 2005, we announced that we would strive for the semi-finals by 2030, but the situation is different now, so I think it might be necessary to make some revisions."
Miyamoto stated that the ultimate goal remains unchanged, but also pointed out that it is necessary to reassess the gap with the current world-class level, and the first step is to overcome the hurdle of reaching the quarterfinals.
