North Korea’s Footballers Arrive in Japan for Asian Games
North Korea’s footballers stepped into Japan on Friday dressed like diplomats and treated like returning heroes.
White blazers, pink ties, blue trousers, light blue shirts. The national flag stitched sharply onto their jackets. As the men’s team walked into Osaka’s arrivals hall off a flight from Beijing around lunchtime, a wall of sound met them: songs, flags, and outstretched hands from pro-Pyongyang supporters who had waited to greet them.
Bouquets were handed over. Players climbed onto the team bus, pressed up against the windows, waving and high-fiving well-wishers through the glass. For a country long shut out of international sport during the pandemic, it felt like a deliberate statement: North Korea is back on the big stage, and this time in the heart of Japan.
A rare North Korean presence on Japanese soil
More than 100 North Korean athletes will compete in 14 sports at the Asian Games, hosted in Nagoya-Aichi and officially opening on September 19. Football starts early, so the teams are arriving ahead of schedule.
The men’s football side, immaculate in their travel gear, are the first wave. The women’s squad, a team with a formidable record at youth level on the international scene, were due to land in Japan later in the evening.
Japan normally bars North Korean nationals from entering the country as part of sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes. Yet sport carves out its own exceptions. Visiting athletes can receive special permission, and this month that narrow corridor has opened just wide enough to allow a full North Korean delegation to step through.
There are still no diplomatic relations between the two countries. No embassies, no formal ties. But in the coming days, there will be North Korean flags in Japanese stadiums, North Korean goals cheered by Japanese-based supporters, and North Korean teams chasing medals on Japanese tracks, courts, and pitches.
Football first: China, Bangladesh, South Korea
The football schedule gives North Korea an immediate spotlight.
The men open their campaign against China on September 16, a fixture loaded with competitive edge and political undertones. The women start even sooner, facing Bangladesh on Monday in a group that also includes South Korea, with that derby set for September 21.
North Korea’s women’s teams have built a reputation for ruthless efficiency and success at youth tournaments. Now they step into an Asian Games campaign that offers both a sporting test and a rare public showcase, with every touch of the ball watched closely in Japan.
Mobilising support in Japan
In Tokyo, pro-North Korean networks have moved quickly to turn this appearance into a show of strength in the stands.
A pro-Pyongyang group has urged residents in Japan to get behind the visiting athletes. Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korean publication based in Japan, released a video featuring students from Korea University demonstrating how to cheer: chants, songs, coordinated support.
Smiling into the camera, the students walk viewers through the routines and call on them to attend events dressed in North Korea’s red. The message is simple: fill the venues, make noise, be seen.
For Japan, it means something unusual. In a country where North Koreans are usually absent by law, there will soon be pockets of red-shirted fans raising flags and singing for athletes who have travelled from one of the most isolated nations on earth.
For North Korea’s footballers, it means stepping into a complex arena: a rival’s territory, a politically charged backdrop, but also a rare stage and a ready-made crowd. Their first passes and first tackles in Nagoya-Aichi will echo far beyond the touchline.
