Moriyasu's last Japan games start with Brazil, who knocked him out of the World Cup late

Hajime Moriyasu's time as Japan coach will end next week in Singapore, and the first of his two farewell games is against the team that ended his World Cup. The Japan Football Association said on Friday that the friendlies against Brazil on Saturday and Paraguay on Tuesday will be his last in charge.

Moriyasu, 58, took over after the 2018 World Cup and is the longest-serving coach in Japan's history. The plan was for him to lead the team at the Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia in January and then hand over to Go Oiwa, the coach of Japan's Olympic team. That changed last week, when the Asian Football Confederation pushed the tournament back to December 2027, citing "exceptional circumstances" in the region after Houthi attacks on the host country.

For several days the JFA would not say when the handover would happen. Moriyasu was also due to coach a warm-up game in Osaka on Dec. 30, but the federation has cancelled it. Nikkan Sports reported that several J-League clubs objected to a game at that time of year, and that the search for an opponent failed once the Asian Cup teams changed their plans. "We had regarded this game as an important opportunity to strengthen the Japan team," JFA president Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said, but the new schedule forced the decision. All of this occured within about a week.

The timing gives the farewell an edge. At this summer's World Cup in North America, Brazil knocked Japan out in the round of 32 with an injury-time goal in a 2-1 win. Japan had beaten Brazil for the first time a year earlier, in an October 2025 friendly in Tokyo.

Moriyasu has said he wants more than one-off upsets. "For Japan to become a team that can win the World Cup we need to have a higher winning percentage against teams from South America," he said when he named the squad. Both of his last opponents are South American.

His squad includes Aston Villa goalkeeper Zion Suzuki and Crystal Palace midfielder Daichi Kamada. He also called up Coventry City winger Tatsuhiro Sakamoto for the first time in more than five years and recalled Monaco forward Takumi Minamino, who missed the World Cup through injury.

Moriyasu's Japan beat Germany and Spain at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar before losing to Croatia on penalties in the round of 16. When the Asian Cup was postponed, he said he would "accept reality." "If those seven games were to be rescheduled then the new management team could make good use of them looking ahead to the next World Cup," he said.

Oiwa is expected to take over the senior team for friendlies in late March. That means that after Tuesday in Singapore, Japan will go about four months without a game, and Moriyasu's last chance at one more win over South American opposition comes in the next five days.