The 2026 FIFA World Cup has been underway for less than a week and already a familiar soundtrack has emerged in Japan. Better get used to it, because with more than a month before the championship game, the anthems created for the tourney are going to get a lot of play.
J-pop has intersected with the World Cup since the very first time the Japanese national team qualified for the event back in 1998. Back then, expectations were low (perhaps deservedly, as the country lost all three of its group matches) but that did not stop the decade’s premier producer Tetsuya Komuro from being called on to produce the France-based tournament’s official theme song featuring French producer Jean Michel Jarre. It is…extremely Komuro, which helps explain why it locked onto the Oricon Charts for 10 weeks.
Since then, Japan has been a staple at the World Cup, and multiple Japanese songs tend to come out every four years created specifically for the biggest sporting event on the globe. Some of those have stood out as sports anthem classics domestically — ORANGE RANGE’s “Champione” (recently performed on THE FIRST TAKE) and Sheena Ringo’s “Nippon” jump to mind.
Excitement over Samurai Blue seems particularly high in 2026, which perhaps explains why there are four songs serving as prominent themes in the country right now. And I’m definitely hearing them a lot. Seeing as the World Cup has just started and with several more weeks of these tunes being ever present, here’s a guide to the J-pop anthems set to soundtrack the nation’s viewing for the near future.
JI BLUE — “Keshki” (Official Theme Song For Samurai Blue)
Only a massive event like the World Cup could cause a male-idol supergroup to form. That’s exactly the reason for JI BLUE, which finds members of popular Lapone Entertainment outfits JO1 and INI coming together to pump up the players representing Japan on the world stage.
Of all the songs on this list, “Keshki” boasts the most immediate sales success probably owing to the fandom around these groups, the sort that would have seen a single of just these dudes saying “Go Japan” over and over again top the charts. “Keshki” moved 264,489 copies in its first week, landing it on top of Oricon, while the special project itself appeared on THE FIRST TAKE to perform it while clad in the country’s kit.
Anthem Status: Musically, this features no shortage of “oh-oh-oh-ohhhhhs” and pounding beat built for goal-scoring compilations. The sound comes courtesy of Taku Takahashi, operating in a very un-Taku-Takahashi mode, though then again it fits just right for a sports cut even if I’d have liked to hear how he worked Jersey Club into a soccer theme.
Where this loses a little bit of its pitch-related shine is the lyrics, which avoid anything about the sport itself or the country of Japan. Instead, it’s cliche declarations of doing your best and making your dreams come true and never giving up! Probably smart to create upbeat pop that could be equally embraced by students and office workers as it could be Daizen Maeda, but it does make this feel a little generic.
ORANGE RANGE — “1000%” (DAZN “Soccer Anthem”)
Hey, they already made one well-known World Cup song, why not give it another go?
Unfortunately for ORANGE RANGE, “1000%” exists thanks to sports streamer DAZN, who found themselves the target on the online anger pitch after misleading wording led to lots of people subscribing to an annual plan that was presented as monthly. That probably means a lot of folks aren’t going to hear ORANGE RANGE’s “soccer anthem.”
The one undeniable element this has over every other 2026 Japanese World Cup song? Virtual YouTuber and rapping legume Peanuts-kun appears in the video, something no other inclusion here can boast.
Anthem Status: First off, you can’t declare a song a “soccer anthem” yourself DAZN, that needs to be earned.
I get it though, because the streaming service slapping the title on “1000%” itself is probably the only way this one would ever earn the distinction. It sufferers from the same generalness as “Keshiki,” but whereas that song at least has a constant feel of lift-off ideal for something tied to athletics, ORANGE RANGE do too much over the course of their latest World Cup bid, slowing the song down too frequently and adding in unnecessary pieces (violins??? Your ORANGE RANGE!).
Ado — “Kira” (Adidas Japanese Uniform Song)
Full disclosure: The writer has been hired by Universal Music Japan in the past to work on English PR materials for Ado.
Go to Shibuya Station and walk towards Miyashita Park. It won’t take long to see it — Big Ado. That’s literally what it is and the name given to a statue featuring the cartoon avatar of the singer. It’s a great touch to the area, and the latest part of her involvement with Adidas to celebrate the kit worn by Samurai Blue in North America this year.
Before Big Ado, there was “Kira,” her “uniform song” for the German brand. I’m not sure what the players wear on the field necessarily deserves a theme all its own, but that really underlines the giddiness everyone in Japan feels for this year’s World Cup, with a team expected to perform well and being picked by many to be a surprise in the tourney. People will go gaga over anything tied to it…while companies will want to link up with big stars to capture some of the exuberance (and make said stars even bigger…literally).
Anthem Status: Leaning into a rock style helps give this one a lot of extra oomph, and whereas the slower parts in “1000%” sap the momentum, on “Kira” they help make the guitar chug-a-lug all the more forceful. Coupled with Ado’s singing and you get something that sounds ready for any stadium, reminding me a little bit of Koshi Inaba's cover of “Touch” which was Netflix Japan’s theme for the World Baseball Classic.
Once again though, an artist tasked with making a World Cup song does not mention anything really related to the World Cup. The video does the heavy lifting here, but the lyrics are still just pretty straightforward “I don’t give up” platitudes. I get the anxiety of not wanting to lean too much into Japan — despite being arguably the most nationalistic sporting tournament ever conceived, people can still grimace at songs that sound a touch too boisterous (see: “Nippon”).
But you couldn’t fit a reference to a corner kick in or something?
Kenshi Yonezu — “Karasu” (2026 NHK Soccer Theme)
The biggest of all the ones mentioned. Most World Cup games are aired on NHK, which means Kenshi Yonezu’s “Karasu” will be the most heard when the tourney ends in mid July. A lot of the other big soccer-related songs mentioned in the intro were NHK themes, and now this one enters that lineage.
Anthem Status: First off…a true direct reference to the Japanese national team! The squad’s mascot is a mythical crow (“karasu”), so surely we are about to get a soaring number bound to help Samurai Blue blaze into the quarterfinals for the first time ever.
Uhhh, not quite.
Musically, “Karasu” has a nice build to it, with a persistent kick that helps it feel always in motion and a swirl of strings come the chorus that give it a dramatic edge. There’s probably something to examine that this is now the second big J-pop song of the year to lean into renaissance fair instrumentation, following “lulu” by Mrs. GREEN APPLE. Yet I think that palette adds to the general wonder conveyed by this song, and while it may not be header-into-the-net hard, it has a good dash to it.
Lyrically, well…Yonezu did not have the pitch in mind whatsoever here. Despite a reference to confetti at one point which hints at victory, the words to “Karasu” dwell on the passing of time and how people change…or simply go away all together. It’s deeply melancholy if not regretful at moments, and I don’t think anyone cheering on their nation wants to think about the impermanence of being.
So perhaps not the best soccer anthem…but “Karasu” deserves a ton of praise for also bucking the cliche found in the three songs above, using the prompt of “mascot character” as a symbol in which Yonezu can dig into something much trickier than scoring more points than Tunisia. It’s a different sort of anthem.
