Zico risked including Kashima Antlers' Atsushi Yanagisawa despite his metarsal injury in his 23-man squad, since Japan's medical team concluded that he will certainly be fit for the later stages of the Germany tournament.

The Brazilian coach did not include Yokohama's forward Tatsuhiko Kubo in the squad and instead opted for JEF United Chiba's Seiichiro Maki, defending his choice by saying that "Kubo was not right physically".

Goalkeepers: Yoichi Doi (FC Tokyo), Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata), Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus Eight)

Defenders: Akira Kaji (Gamba Osaka), Yuichi Komano (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (Gamba Osaka), Koji Nakata (Basel), Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama F Marinos), Alessandro Santos (Urawa Reds), Makoto Tanaka (Jubilo Iwata), Keisuke Tsuboi (Urawa Reds)

Midfielders: Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka), Takashi Fukunishi (Jubilo Iwata), Junichi Inamoto (West Brom), Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic), Hidetoshi Nakata (Bolton), Mitsuo Ogasawara (Kashima Antlers), Shinji Ono (Urawa Reds)

Strikers: Seiichiro Maki (JEF United Chiba), Masashi Oguro (Grenoble), Naohiro Takahara (Hamburg), Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus Eight), Atsushi Yanagisawa (Kashima Antlers)

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