The 2023 Emperor's Cup (Emperor's Cup JFA 103rd Japan Football Championship (Japanese: 天皇杯 JFA 第103回全日本サッカー選手権大会)) was the 103rd edition of the annually contested cup, starting on 20 May. The format for 2023 did not present any changes from the previous edition. It featured 88 teams representing the prefectural football associations, J1 League, J2 League and Japan Football League. JFL's Honda FC was once again chosen to be the annually specially-designated amateur club.[1]
Ventforet Kofu were the defending champions, after a cinderella story for the J2 club saw them qualify for the final, which they won on penalties against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, after a 1–1 draw in regulation time, but were eliminated by Vissel Kobe in the round of 16.[2]
Qualifying rounds
As only J1 and J2 League clubs qualify directly for the first round, teams from outside of it who want to qualify to the Emperor's Cup (exception being made to the JFA-seeded team), had to, as usual, undergo a prefectural qualification, with regulations and schedules varying from one association to another. In total, there are 47 prefectural cup qualifications, with the winners of each prefectural cup having earned their right to play in the Emperor's Cup, with all of them assigned to start the competition in the first round.[3]
Prefectural (university):(7): University league below their respective Regional Leagues.
Others(7+): Below the cited club tiers, unknown or not affiliated with any league.
Calendar
The schedule from the first round to the quarter-finals was announced on 20 December 2022.[13] The semi-finals and the final did not have its dates released by the Japan Football Association, as uncertainties around the schedule of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup left doubts about possible reschedule of one or more rounds of the Emperor's Cup. The decision was also made to avoid schedule conflict for teams whose squads would have one or more players participating in the competition.[14]
The match pairings was decided on 22 March 2023. Except for Honda FC, who was granted a bye from prefectural qualifications due to their "amateur designated team" status, no other club had yet qualified to the tournament when the draw was conducted.[15]
All the 2023 J1 and J2 League clubs enter the competition in this round. Most of these professional clubs hosted their matches in their own prefecture. However, as the number of teams from these leagues combined does not match the amount of host teams required, some of these teams had to play their matches away from home. These specific away teams either finished between the 15th to 20th place on last season's J2 or got promoted from the J3 League for the 2023 season, and played their ties against teams that finished between the 7th and 14th place on last season's J2.[16]
^The match was originally due to be played on 7 June. But on 9 May, in response to a request from Vissel Kobe, the Emperor's Cup Executive Committee decided to postpone the match to 14 June.[17] Likely, the postponement was related to Vissel Kobe's friendly match against FC Barcelona, played around that date.[18]
^The match #58 was kicked off on 12 July, but suspended after the first half of the extra time due to thunderstorm. It was determined on 13 July that the remainder of the match should be played on 19 July.[19]
