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FIFA World Cup: Japan’s national team known as ‘Samurai Blue’

By and
Published  March 26, 2026 4:06pm CDT
FIFA World Cup
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The Brief

    • Global fans will be heading to North Texas for nine FIFA World Cup matches in Arlington, including former Texan Joshua Gomez traveling from Tokyo.
    • Gomez secured surprise lottery tickets to watch his favorite team. Japan’s Samurai Blue faces off against the Netherlands on June 14.
    • Injuries to star players have left Japanese fans anxious ahead of the tournament and an upcoming friendly match against England.

DALLAS - Fans from around the world will soon flock to North Texas for the nine FIFA World Cup games in Arlington. That includes a man who grew up in Texas but now lives in Tokyo.

Joshua Gomez said he’s been a fan of Japan’s national team for as long as he can remember.

Lifelong Fan

Gomez was born in the United States. But his father was in the military, so he briefly lived in Japan before growing up in San Antonio.

The Texas Tech graduate now lives in Tokyo, where he said a different type of football is king.

"Japan is basically soccer or baseball, right? So, you usually play one of the two and that got me to start playing soccer," he said.

He and his family will travel to Dallas to watch Japan’s first match against the Netherlands on June 14.

For Gomez, finding out he got tickets came as a surprise.

"On the third lottery entry, I just like totally forgot I even signed up, and I just looked at my bank statement. I’m like, ‘Oh, I just lost a lot of money. What is this?’ And then I got an email saying I got tickets. So, I was like, ‘Oh, whoa!’ And, I mean, honestly, we didn’t even really plan for this because we didn’t think we’d be going or even to get tickets," he said.

Samurai Blue

SUITA, JAPAN - OCTOBER 10: Japan players stand in silence to pay tribute to Kunishige Kamamoto prior to the international friendly match between Japan and Paraguay at Panasonic Stadium Suita on October 10, 2025 in Suita, Osaka, Japan. (Photo by Koji

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The Japan national team is known as Samurai Blue.

"Japanese history kind of revolves on the samurai. I mean, you see a lot of movies being made about it. It’s always referencing the samurai when it comes to ancient Japanese history. So, and then the national team color is blue. So we always were called Samurai Blue, right? Even our baseball team for the WBC mentioned samurai Japan, right. So samurai obviously has a big historical value for Japanese Asian history," Gomez explained.

Gomez believes the Samurai Blue fans are a bit nervous because they have multiple star players out with injuries.

A big test will be the team’s friendly with England in a few days.

The Source: The information in this story comes from an interview with Japanese fan Joshua Gomez.

FIFA World CupSports