The2022Emperor's Cup (Emperor's Cup JFA 102nd Japan Football Championship (Japanese: 天皇杯 JFA 第102回全日本サッカー選手権大会)) was the 102nd edition of the annually contested cup, taking place from 21 May to 16 October.^[1] The final was played at theNissan Stadium, inYokohama,Kanagawa. The stadium returned to host an Emperor's Cup final for the first time since2014.

The 2022 Emperor's Cup followed a different pattern to the previous three editions of the tournament, being restored to its old, usual format, which was applied for the last time in the2018 Emperor's Cup. It features 88 teams, representing theprefectural football associations, theJ1 League, and theJ2 League.Honda FC was awarded a seeded entry as the JFA's annually specially designated amateur club, in order to turn the quantity of teams in the First Round to an even number.^[2]

Urawa Red Diamonds were the defending champions, but were eliminated byThespakusatsu Gunma in the third round.Ventforet Kofu won their first major title overSanfrecce Hiroshima and qualified for the2023–24 AFC Champions League group stage.

As only J1 and J2 League clubs qualify directly for the First Round, the other Emperor's Cup candidate teams (exception being made to the JFA-seeded teams), have to undergo a prefectural qualification, with regulaments and schedules varying from one association to another. In total, there are 47 prefectural cup qualifications, with the winners of each prefectural cup earning their right to play in the First Round of the Emperor's Cup. This year, a total of 2,342 teams played in the aforementioned prefectural qualifications. The following boxes shows each result of the 47 prefectural finals of the2022 Emperor's Cup Prefectural Qualification Cup.^[3][4][5]

In parentheses: the amount of times each team qualified for the Emperor's Cup (appearance in the 2022 Emperor's Cup included)

Note

The schedule was announced on 21 December 2021.^[8] The first round of the tournament was played on Saturdays and Mondays. From the second round to the semi-finals, the matches were played on Wednesdays, and the final on a Sunday. On a very rare occasion, the final was moved to be played on mid-October, due to Japan's participation at the2022 FIFA World Cup, held at the end of the year.

The opening round of the 2022 Emperor's Cup with the 47 Prefectural Cup Final winners and a specially seeded amateur team (Honda FC) was played from 21 to 22 May, with 23 May being the alternative match-playing date, if the match needed by any reason to be rescheduled.

The matches on this round were played from 1 June to 8 June; 29 matches were played on 1 June and 3 matches on 8 June. Despite it being a professional league, theJ3 League teams were not awarded a direct spot in this round, meaning that they had to undergo a prefectural qualification and win their first round matches to qualify for the second round. The direct spots were reserved toJ1 League, andJ2 League teams.

On 8 June 2022, all the teams in this round were confirmed, after all the remaining matches from the Second round came to an end. Match venues for the round were announced on 3 June 2022. Out of the four Japanese teams who got qualified for the2022 AFC Champions League, onlyVissel Kobe qualified for the second round.^[9]

The match venues for the 4th round were announced on 22 June 2022, and the kick-off times were announced on 30 June 2022.^[10][11]

A draw was conducted to determine the matchups of the quarter-final stage and onwards, on 15 July, and all the teams on the round were made known on 20 July. Six of the teams featuring in this round play in theJ1 League, while the other 2, Tokyo Verdy and Ventforet Kofu, play in theJ2 League.