| All Japan High School Soccer Tournament | |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Country: | Japan |
| Num Teams: | 48 |
| Winners: | Aomori Yamada |
| Count: | 4 |
| Second: | Ohmi |
| Matches: | 47 |
| Goals: | 146 |
| Scoring Leader: | Riku Gunji (Ichiritsu Funabashi) Soji Yoneya (Aomori Yamada) (5 goals) |
| Attendance: | 358,820 |
| Prev Season: | 2022 |
| Next Season: | 2024 |
The 2023 All Japan High School Soccer Tournament (第102回全国高等学校サッカー選手権大会; All Japan JFA 102nd High School Soccer Tournament) marked the 102nd edition of the referred annually contested cup for High Schools over Japan, contested by all 48 prefectural qualifications' winning schools.[1] [2]
The defending champions were Okayama Gakugeikan, from Okayama Prefecture, who won the 2022 final with a 3–1 win over Kyoto Prefecture's Higashiyama in the Final, becoming the first high school from Okayama to ever win the competition. They won the title despite not playing at the top tier of Japan's youth league system, having finished the previous season as a mid-table team in the Chugoku Prince League, one of the nine regional leagues that composes the second tier.[3] [4]
As the norm, from the first round to the quarterfinals, the matches had a duration of 80 minutes, split into two halves of 40 minutes each (not counting injury time). The semi-finals and the final had matches the traditional format of around 90 minutes, however, matching the standard match length of professional football. During the tournament, if a match should be tied, it directly required a penalty shoot-outs, except for the final, where extra-time would be played if the match was kept tied for 90 minutes.
The entire tournament, including the prefectural tournament finals, was streamed on SportsBull[5] and TVer free of charge. The semi-finals and the final were aired on NTV.[6] Alongside it, NTV G+ in cable TV.,[7] NTV and Nippon News Network (NNN) local stations has also shown selected games from the first round to the quarter-finals.
The tournament took place in a 12-day span, with the tournament split into a total of 6 stages. The draw to decide the tournament schedule and the match pairings was done in 20 November.
| Round | Date | Matches | Clubs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round | 28–29 December 2023 | 16 | ||
| Second round | 31 December 2023 | 16 | 32 (16+16) → 16 | |
| Third round | 2 January 2024 | 8 | 16 → 8 | |
| Quarter-finals | 4 January 2024 | 4 | 8 → 4 | |
| Semi-finals | 6 January 2024 | 2 | 4 → 2 | |
| Final | 8 January 2024 | 1 | 2 → 1 |
The venues for the tournament were split into four different prefectures. In total, nine different stadiums hosted matches for the tournament. Two stadiums are located for each of the Kanagawa, Chiba, and Saitama prefectures, while three stadiums are located in Tokyo.[8]
All the 47 prefectures holds knockout stage qualifiers for their respective High Schools. Tokyo's qualifiers is the only to qualify two teams to the competition, as they have the largest amount of registered High Schools affiliated with the All-Japan High School Soccer Federation. Teams playing at national/regional-level leagues earns a bye from the early stages, getting automatically allocated into the third or fourth round of their respective qualifiers, specially to accommodate their busier schedule.
Notable absentees from the tournament were Premier League high schools Asahikawa Jitsugyo, Riseisha, Higashi Fukuoka and RKU Kashiwa, respectively Hokkaido qualifiers' runner-up, Osaka qualifiers' runner-up, Fukuoka qualifiers' runner-up and Chiba qualifiers' semi-finalist. Prince League's Higashiyama, who last year was the national tournament's runner-up ended also as a runner-up on this year's Kyoto qualifiers, and one of Tokyo's qualifiers semi-finalists Teikyo, who since 2009 was unable to qualify for the national tournament, despite being the only school from Tokyo to reach the 1st division of the Kanto Prince League since 2015, playing on it since 2019.
Meanwhile, 8 of the 11 high schools that on 2023 played on the Premier League were able to qualify to the national competition. Defending champions Okayama Gakugeikan qualified for the third consecutive time, and for the sixth-ever time in their history. Waseda Jitsugyo and Nago, competition debutants, were both the lowest-ranked teams in the tournament, as they played the 2023 season in their respective prefecture's 2nd divisions, which are part of the 5th tier of U-18 football in Japan.[9]
| Prefecture | High School | League (U-18) | Apps. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hokkaido Prince League | 2 | 13th | |||
| Premier League East | 1 | 29th | |||
| Iwate Football League | 4 | 30th | |||
| Miyagi Football League | 4 | 37th | |||
| North Asia Univ. Meioh High School | Akita Football League | 4 | 6th | ||
| Yamagata Football League | 4 | 1st | |||
| Premier League East | 1 | 14th | |||
| Ibaraki Football League | 4 | 5th | |||
| Kanto Prince League D1 | 2 | 13th | |||
| Premier League East | 1 | 26th | |||
| Premier League East | 1 | 6th | |||
| Premier League East | 1 | 24th | |||
| Tokyo T1 League | 4 | 5th | |||
| Waseda Jitsugyo School | Tokyo T2 League | 5 | 1st | ||
| Kanagawa Football League | 4 | 7th | |||
| Yamanashi Football League | 4 | 11th | |||
| Hokushinetsu Prince League D2 | 3 | 6th | |||
| Hokushinetsu Prince League D1 | 2 | 10th | |||
| Hokushinetsu Prince League D1 | 2 | 34th | |||
| Hokushinetsu Prince League D1 | 2 | 32nd | |||
| Hokushinetsu Prince League D2 | 3 | 34th | |||
| Premier League West | 1 | 14th | |||
| Aichi Football League | 4 | 1st | |||
| Mie Football League | 4 | 35th | |||
| Gifu Football League | 4 | 10th | |||
| Kansai Prince League D1 | 2 | 3rd | |||
| Kyoto Tachibana High School | Kansai Prince League D1 | 2 | 10th | ||
| Kansai Prince League D1 | 2 | 6th | |||
| Kansai Prince League D2 | 3 | 12th | |||
| Nara Football League | 4 | 16th | |||
| Wakayama Football League | 4 | 17th | |||
| Premier League West | 1 | 19th | |||
| Chugoku Prince League | 2 | 20th | |||
| Chugoku Prince League | 2 | 6th | |||
| Hiroshima Football League | 4 | 1st | |||
| Yamaguchi Football League | 4 | 29th | |||
| Shikoku Prince League | 2 | 3rd | |||
| Shikoku Prince League | 2 | 20th | |||
| Shikoku Prince League | 2 | 3rd | |||
| Kochi Football League | 4 | 9th | |||
| Kyushu Prince League D2 | 3 | 2nd | |||
| Kyushu Prince League D2 | 3 | 13th | |||
| Kyushu Prince League D1 | 2 | 9th | |||
| Premier League West | 1 | 20th | |||
| Oita Football League | 4 | 2nd | |||
| Kyushu Prince League D1 | 2 | 17th | |||
| Premier League West | 1 | 11th | |||
| Okinawa Football League D2 | 5 | 1st |
The schedule was announced on 20 November 2023, after the draw was conducted by the JFA, following the completion of the competition's prefectural qualifications.[10] [11]
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| Assistant referees
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| Rank | Player | High School | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riku Gunji | Ichiritsu Funabashi | 5 |
| Soji Yoneya | Aomori Yamada | ||
| 3 | Kaito Koizumi | Aomori Yamada | 3 |
| Shinyu Kubohara | Ichiritsu Funabashi | ||
| Gaku Nawata | Kamimura Gakuen | ||
| Ryuki Osa | Shohei | ||
| Ayumu Ukon | Saga Higashi | ||
| Eiji Uto | Ohmi | ||
| Riu Yamakado | Ohmi | ||
| Ryo Yamamoto | Ohmi | ||
The following 34 players featured in the Tournament's Best Players Squad:[12]
| P. | Player | High School | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GK | Shoei Suzuki | Aomori Yamada | 3rd | Tokai University |
| GK | Soma Amano | Maebashi Ikuei | 3rd | Waseda University |
| GK | Shuto Yoshitomi | Horikoshi | 3rd | Takushoku University |
| DF | Tora Yamamoto | Aomori Yamada | 3rd | Toyo University |
| DF | Kaito Koizumi | Aomori Yamada | 3rd | Meiji University |
| DF | Toki Sugasawa | Aomori Yamada | 3rd | Kokushikan University |
| DF | Kanade Mori | Horikoshi | 2nd | Horikoshi |
| DF | Ryoma Adachi | Nagoya | 3rd | Nanzan University |
| DF | Sodai Nishimura | Ohmi | 3rd | Kyoto Sangyo University |
| DF | Yota Kanayama | Ohmi | 3rd | Kwansei Gakuin University |
| DF | Sena Egashira | Saga Higashi | 2nd | Saga Higashi |
| DF | Natsuki Goto | Ohzu | 2nd | Ohzu |
| DF | Yumeki Yoshinaga | Kamimura Gakuen | 3rd |  Genk |
| MF | Rei Shibata | Aomori Yamada | 3rd | Meiji University |
| MF | Hidetaka Sugimoto | Aomori Yamada | 3rd | Toin University of Yokohama |
| MF | Yuya Yoshida | Meishu Hitachi | 3rd | Kokushikan University |
| MF | Junki Osa | Shohei | 3rd | Juntendo University |
| P. | Player | High School | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MF | Shungo Ota | Ichiritsu Funabashi | 3rd | Toin University of Yokohama |
| MF | Yu Takada | Shizuoka Gakuen | 3rd | Tokushima Vortis |
| MF | Hyugo Nishi | Ohmi | 3rd | Kyoto Tachibana University |
| MF | Riu Yamakado | Ohmi | 3rd | Konan University |
| MF | Haku Asai | Ohmi | 3rd | Biwako Seikei S. College |
| MF | Shota Miyagawa | Saga Higashi | 3rd | Osaka University HSS |
| MF | Gaku Nawata | Kamimura Gakuen | 2nd | Kamimura Gakuen |
| FW | Soji Yoneya | Aomori Yamada | 3rd | Tokai University |
| FW | Sena Usuda | Meioh | 3rd | Osaka University HSS |
| FW | Kohei Oda | Shohei | 3rd | Tokai University |
| FW | Riku Gunji | Ichiritsu Funabashi | 3rd | Shimizu S-Pulse |
| FW | Shinyu Kubohara | Ichiritsu Funabashi | 2nd | Ichiritsu Funabashi |
| FW | Kenta Nakamura | Horikoshi | 3rd | Takushoku University |
| FW | Sota Hori | Teikyo Nagaoka | 3rd | Kansai University |
| FW | Naotaro Mizunaga | Tokai Gyosei | 3rd | Osaka University of Economics |
| FW | Saku Kitafuji | Kobe Koryo Gakuen | 3rd | Kwansei Gakuin University |
| FW | Minto Nishimaru | Kamimura Gakuen | 3rd | Vegalta Sendai |
| Pos. | Player | Moving from | Moving to[13] [14] [15] | League | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GK | Keisuke Nakamura | Shizuoka Gakuen | J1 | ||
| Yota Fujii | Iizuka | J2 | |||
| Yuhi Ono | Nihon Fujisawa | J2 | |||
| Yuto Anzai | Shoshi | J1 | |||
| Kosuke Hara | Nagoya | J1 | |||
| Asuma Ikari | Ohzu | J2 | |||
| Yu Takada | Shizuoka Gakuen | J2 | |||
| Riku Gunji | Ichiritsu Funabashi | J2 | |||
| Soma Kanda | Shizuoka Gakuen | J1 | |||
| Minto Nishimaru | Kamimura Gakuen | J2 | |||
| Rento Takaoka(DSP) | Nissho Gakuen | J3 |