2020 Emperor's Cup

The 2020 Emperor's Cup (Emperor's Cup JFA 100th Japan Football Championship (天皇杯 JFA 第100回全日本サッカー選手権大会)) was the 100th edition of the annual Japanese national football cup tournament. The tournament, originally scheduled to begin on 23 May, was rescheduled to begin on 16 September and ended with the final on 1 January 2021 at the National Stadium.

The number of teams was reduced to 50 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, and subsequently changed to 52 teams. Both the champions of the 2020 J2 League and the 2020 J3 League entered at the quarter-finals. The top two teams from the 2020 J1 League entered at the semi-finals.

The defending champions were Vissel Kobe but they were unable to defend the title as they failed to qualify through the top two of the 2020 J1 League.

The J1 League champions Kawasaki Frontale completed the double by beating the league's runners-up Gamba Osaka in the final, earning their first Emperor's Cup title.

Calendar
The revised schedule was announced on 18 June 2020.

Regional allocation
JFA decided that 48 amateur teams would be split into 8 regions, and each region would be represented by 1 team in the Fourth Round. 8 regions were based on 9 regional football associations in Japan (Hokkaido & Tohoku would be merged into a single region).


 * Kantō (all 8 prefectural representative teams participate from First Round);
 * Kyushu (all 8 prefectural representative teams participate from First Round);
 * Hokushinetsu (5 prefectural representative teams, with 3 teams participate from Second Round and 2 teams participate from First Round);
 * Tōkai (4 prefectural representative teams plus Honda FC, with 3 teams participate from Second Round and 2 teams participate from First Round);
 * Chūgoku (5 prefectural representative teams, with 3 teams participate from Second Round and 2 teams participate from First Round);
 * Hokkaido & Tohoku (7 prefectural representative teams, with 1 team participate from Second Round and 6 teams participate from First Round);
 * Shikoku (all 4 prefectural representative teams participate from Second Round);
 * Kansai (6 prefectural representative teams, with 2 teams participate from Second Round and 4 teams participate from First Round);

Participating clubs
52 clubs will compete in the tournament.

Bracket
Source:Tournament table (Official website in Japanese)

First round
The draw for the first through third rounds was conducted on 29 July 2020.

Fifth round
Venues for the fifth round through the semi-finals were only announced on 10 December, as the venues would be decided based on the qualified teams for the round.