The2021Emperor's Cup (Emperor's Cup JFA 101st Japan Football Championship (Japanese: 天皇杯 JFA 第101回全日本サッカー選手権大会)) was the 101st annual Japanese national football cup tournament, which began on 22 May 2021 and ended with thefinal on 19 December that year.

Following the compressed format of the 2020 tournament, the 2021 Emperor's Cup was restored to its usual format, featuring 90 teams representingprefectural football associations as well as theJ1 andJ2 Leagues.Verspah Oita was also awarded a seeded entry as the JFA's annually designated amateur club.

Kawasaki Frontale were the defending champions. They were eliminated byOita Trinita in thesemi-finals.Urawa Red Diamonds won their eighth title and qualified for the2022 AFC Champions League group stage.

The schedule was announced on 2 April 2021.^[1][2]

There are 90 clubs compete in the tournament. The representatives for the prefectures of Tottori and Kumamoto had to be determined by the local FAs afterCOVID-19 countermeasures made it impossible to continue the prefectural qualification tournaments.^[3][4]

Note

Source:Tournament table (Official website in Japanese)

The match betweenTochigi City and the representatives of Yamanashi Prefecture, originally intended to beYamanashi Gakuin University Pegasus and scheduled for 22 May, was postponed the day before by theJapan Football Association after Pegasus fielded an ineligiblecup-tied player in theYamanashi Prefecture Cup final.^[6] Note thatPegasus operates functionally as YGU'ssecond team and competed in the Yamanashi tournament alongside the YGU third team, known asOrions; the first team YGUBraves also competed in Emperor's Cup qualifiers inTokyo Metropolis. Subsequent to an investigation, the JFA decided on 24 May that YGU Pegasus would be disqualified and awarded their spot to Nirasaki Astros, their opponents in the Yamanashi final.^[5]

Also postponed was the match betweenTonan Maebashi andJuntendo University after an individual affiliated with Juntendo tested positive forCOVID-19.^[7] The match was eventually rescheduled for 5 June.^[8]

Arterivo Wakayama vOcocias Kyoto AC

22 May 20211	Arterivo Wakayama	3–3 (a.e.t.) (4–5p)	Ococias Kyoto AC	Wakayama
13:00JST	Okutsu 31' Kubo [ja] 55' Nakanishi 73'	Report	Enomoto 15' Inagaki 20' Hiraishi 86'	Stadium:Kimiidera Athletic Stadium
	Penalties
	Utsugi Shinohara [ja] Okita Takase Pek Myong-chol		Enomoto Hiraishi Shimizu Kokubo Moriya

Renofa Yamaguchi vVerspah Oita

22 May 20211	Renofa Yamaguchi	1–1 (a.e.t.) (2–4p)	Verspah Oita	Yamaguchi
15:00JST	Umeki 38'	Report	Nakano [ja] 30'	Stadium:Ishin Me-Life Stadium Referee:Tatsuya Sakai
	Penalties
	Ikegami Sato Komatsu Sawai		Maeda Takahashi Murata Nakamura

Blaublitz Akita vHokkaido Tokachi Sky Earth

23 May 20211	Blaublitz Akita	1–1 (8–9p)	Hokkaido Tokachi Sky Earth	Akita
13:00JST	Inoue 61'	Report	Nawa 36'	Stadium:Soyu Stadium Attendance: 534 Referee:Keisuke Nobori
	Penalties
	Mikami Yamada Fukoin Take Yoshida Aoshima Aiba Suzuki Iio		Yamashita Tanaka Nagasaka Kizawa Nawa Watanabe Takagi Sato Kawamoto

Iwaki FC vSony Sendai FC

22 May 20211	Iwaki FC	2–2 (a.e.t.) (2–4p)	Sony Sendai FC	Iwaki
13:00JST	Hidaka 85' Tanimura 115'	Report	Hirata [ja] 90+3' Sato 101'	Stadium:Iwaki Greenfield Stadium
	Penalties
	Sakata Vásquez Hidaka Saga		Ishigami Sato Fujiwara [ja] Ogihara [ja]

Kawasaki Frontale vAC Nagano Parceiro

9 June 20212	Kawasaki Frontale	1–1 (a.e.t.) (4–3p)	AC Nagano Parceiro	Kawasaki
18:00JST	Tachibanada 90+1'	Report	Fujiyama 42'	Stadium:Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium Attendance: 4,508 Referee:Keigo Sendachi
	Penalties
	Kobayashi Yamamura Kurumaya Tono Ienaga		Fujiyama Mizutani Azuma Yamamoto Yoshimura

Yokohama F. Marinos vHonda FC

9 June 20212	Yokohama F. Marinos	2–2 (a.e.t.) (3–5p)	Honda FC	Yokohama
18:00JST	Élber 67' Léo Ceará 102'	Report	Kusumoto [ja] 28' Okazaki 106'	Stadium:NHK Spring Mitsuzawa Football Stadium Attendance: 2,804 Referee:Hirokazu Otsubo
	Penalties
	Thiago Martins Bunmathan Élber Marcos Júnior		Okazai Suzuki [ja] Hirouchi [ja] Hachinohe [ja] Kawanami

Shonan Bellmare vF.C. Osaka

9 June 20212	Shonan Bellmare	0–0 (a.e.t.) (4–3p)	F.C. Osaka	Hiratsuka
19:00JST		Report		Stadium:Lemon Gas Stadium Hiratsuka Attendance: 1,385 Referee:Masaki Tsuruoka
	Penalties
	Umesaki Oiwa Tanaka Machino		Tsukegi [ja] Sakamoto Tanaka Kitsui [ja] Iwamoto [ja]

Tokyo Verdy vFagiano Okayama

16 June 20212	Tokyo Verdy	0–1	Fagiano Okayama	Kita
18:00JST		Report	Noguchi 61'	Stadium:Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka Attendance: 1,016 Referee:Yoshimi Yamashita

The third round schedule was announced on 17 June 2021.^[12]

Nagoya Grampus vFagiano Okayama

2 August 2021[a]3	Nagoya Grampus	1–0	Fagiano Okayama	Nagoya
18:00JST	Nakatani 33'	Report		Stadium:Nagoya Minato Stadium Attendance: 2,001 Referee:Takuto Okabe [ja]

A draw was held on 24 September 2021^[13][14] to determine the matchups of the quarter-final stage and onwards.Nagoya Grampus was guaranteed to have home advantage in quarter-finals as they advanced to the quarter-finals of the2021 AFC Champions League, whileUrawa Red Diamonds,Kashima Antlers andOita Trinita were drawn as the away team in quarter-finals as they could not guarantee their home stadium at the moment.

Kawasaki Frontale vOita Trinita

12 December 2021SF	Kawasaki Frontale	1–1 (a.e.t.) (4–5p)	Oita Trinita	Kawasaki
14:00JST	Kobayashi 113'	Report	Trevisan 120+1'	Stadium:Todoroki Athletics Stadium Attendance: 17,595 Referee:Hajime Matsuo [ja]
	Penalties
	Chinen Yamamura Kozuka Tsukagawa Yu Kobayashi Taniguchi Yamane		Shimoda Nagasawa Matsumoto Trevisan Yuk. Kobayashi Misao Machida

Urawa Red Diamonds vOita Trinita

19 December 2021Final	Urawa Red Diamonds	2–1	Oita Trinita	Shinjuku
14:00JST	Esaka 6' Makino 90+3'	Report	Pereira 90'	Stadium:Japan National Stadium Attendance: 57,785 Referee: Yusuke Araki

League

• 2021 J1 League
• 2021 J2 League
• 2021 J3 League
• 2021 Japan Football League

Cup(s)

• 2021 Fuji Xerox Super Cup
• 2021 J.League YBC Levain Cup

• Emperors Cup 2021, JFA.jp

• Emperor's Cup seasons
• 2021 Asian domestic association football cups
• 2021 in Japanese football

• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Interlanguage link template existing link