2024 Emperor's Cup
The 2024 Emperor's Cup [Emperor's Cup JFA 104th Japan Football Championship (Japanese: 天皇杯 JFA 第104回全日本サッカー選手権大会)] will be the 104th edition of the annually contested cup, starting on 25 May. It will as usual feature 88 teams representing the prefectural football associations, J1 League, J2 League and Japan Football League.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Country | Japan |
| Dates | 25 May – 23 November |
| Teams | 88 |
Kawasaki Frontale are the defending champions, winning the previous tournament's final on penalty shoot-outs against Kashiwa Reysol.
On 19 September 2023, it was announced by JFA that Urawa Red Diamonds would not be participating in this year's tournament following the riot caused by the fans after a 0–3 loss against Nagoya Grampus in the 4th round of the previous year's tournament.
This year, the annually specially-designated amateur club from the Japan Football League is Honda FC. Unusually, they will be automatically seeded into the second round, replacing the aforementioned excluded J1 League club Urawa Red Diamonds, to complete the 40 direct entries' slots into the round. Needing one more team, now to fill the 48 direct entries' slots into the first-round, JFA assigned Meiji University to take the remaining slot, joining the competition as 2023 University Championship winners. As it's the norm, both teams are given a bye from prefectural qualifications.