Premier League 2026–27: The Japanese Players to Watch This Season

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The 2026–27 Premier League season arrives with more Japanese players spread across the division than ever before — though, as with any season opener, the very first headline involves one of them missing out.

The Returning Group

Four Japanese players carry over regular first-team roles from last season: Kaoru Mitoma at Brighton & Hove Albion, Wataru Endo at Liverpool, Daichi Kamada at Crystal Palace, and Ao Tanaka at Leeds United. All four were part of Japan's squad setup heading into 2026.

The New Arrivals

This summer added several more: Tatsuhiro Sakamoto joined newly-promoted Coventry City, Daizen Maeda moved to Ipswich Town from Celtic (see TBM's separate coverage of his Premier League debut), Hidemasa Morita signed with Hull City, and Takehiro Tomiyasu — a former Arsenal defender most recently at Ajax — completed a move to Crystal Palace after proving his fitness in a preseason trial, becoming manager Pierre Sage's second summer signing and joining countryman Daichi Kamada in the same squad.

Exactly How Many Is Unclear — And That's Worth Saying Honestly

Reports on the exact size of Japan's Premier League contingent this season vary — some football-focused accounts cite six players as a new record, while broader news coverage counts eight confirmed players once every summer signing is included, with the possibility of reaching ten if a couple of further, still-unconfirmed moves go through. TBM isn't picking one of these numbers to present as fact — what's consistently agreed across sources is that this is Japan's largest Premier League presence to date, up from four players as recently as last season.

The One Confirmed Setback So Far

Not every headline is a positive one: Kaoru Mitoma is missing Brighton's season-opening match against Aston Villa while still recovering from hamstring surgery after an injury sustained in May, with Maxim De Cuyper expected to deputize on Brighton's left side in his absence.

What To Know

Individual Japanese players reaching the Premier League has happened before, but this many at once — across this many different clubs, from an established Brighton starter to a fresh Crystal Palace pairing — is a different scale of story, and it means fans now have a genuine reason to follow far more than one or two specific match days each week.

Japanese-language football coverage has increasingly framed the Premier League contingent as a collective storyline in its own right, not just a set of individual transfers — reflecting how thoroughly the League has become appointment viewing in Japan alongside the domestic J.League, rather than a separate, lower-interest competition.

What Fans Are Saying

• "Never expected this many Japanese players across the League at once."
• "Hope Mitoma has a smooth recovery, that's a tough one to miss the opener for."
• "Kamada and Tomiyasu together at Palace is a fun pairing to watch."

Original Japanese

• 「こんなに日本人選手が増えるとは思わなかった」
• 「三笘選手、早く良くなってほしい」
• 「パレスの鎌田&冨安コンビ、楽しみ」

Easy Japanese

プレミアリーグに、日本人サッカー選手がたくさん出場するようになりました。三笘薫選手はケガで開幕戦を休みました。