Japan U-20

Japan U-20 is the under-twenty national football team representing Japan in the Blue Lock manga, run under the oversight of the Japan Football Union. It also goes by Blue Lock Japan, a nod to how thoroughly the program reshaped it. Jinpachi Ego serves as coach, Oliver Aiku wears the captain's armband, and the team is currently active.

The squad traces its origins to 1979 and carries the country in the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Across the tournaments staged between 1977 and 2018 it reached the finals only nine times out of twenty-two, and its ceiling was a runner-up finish in 1999, a final it lost to Spain. More often its journey ends around the round of sixteen.

It debuts in Chapter 110 of the manga and in Episode 29 of the anime adaptation.

The team's fate turns on a single fixture. After Japan bowed out in the round of sixteen at the 2018 tournament, Anri Teieri pushed for a fresh approach to Japanese football, a vision that gave rise to the Blue Lock Project. Hoping to profit while dismantling that project, the football association agreed to Ego's proposal for a showdown between Japan U-20 and the Blue Lock Eleven. A win would let them close Blue Lock as unrealistic, while a defeat would hand the program the national team outright. Japan fell 3-4 to Ego's evolved players, and control of the under-20 side passed to Blue Lock.

Once the Neo Egoist League wrapped up, the twenty-three highest-ranked players by bid value were named to the World Cup roster, a tournament confirmed for Japan itself. A concealed clause lets three more players, the Buratsuta 3, enter through the Side-B project run by Hirotoshi Buratsuta, who in exchange seizes command of their careers. Sae Itoshi is the sole guaranteed pick who keeps his freedom, while Ego vows to block the two reinstated Locked-Off players he judges unfit.

On the pitch the revamped team blends collective strategy with egotistical finishing, using Yoichi Isagi as its hub while Reo Mikage and Tabito Karasu direct traffic in midfield and Gin Gagamaru guards the net. The approach carried Japan to a 4-0 rout of Nigeria U-20, but a 2-4 defeat to France U-20 exposed a heavy dependence on Isagi, prompting a two-system reshuffle ahead of a looming clash with England U-20.

The current roster is stacked with Blue Lock graduates, among them Yoichi Isagi, Rin Itoshi, Meguru Bachira, Hyoma Chigiri, Reo Mikage, Tabito Karasu, Gin Gagamaru and Ryusei Shido, with Oliver Aiku captaining the defense. The coaching and management core features Jinpachi Ego, Anri Teieri and Hirotoshi Buratsuta.

The earlier incarnation looked very different, built around playmaker Sae Itoshi and the Iron Wall Quartet of Aiku, Kazuma Nio, Miroku Darai and Teppei Neru. Of the twenty-three players first called up for the World Cup, Gen Fukaku is the only one not previously known to have played as a forward.