Photo/Illutration Hajime Moriyasu during a news conference in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Dec. 28, 2022 (Takayuki Kakuno)

Hajime Moriyasu has been rewarded for the Japanese national team’s success at the soccer World Cup in Qatar.

The Japan Football Association on Dec. 28 formally announced that it will retain Moriyasu, 54, as head coach of Samurai Blue until the 2026 World Cup.

“I am extremely honored to be able to serve as the head coach again,” Moriyasu said at a news conference. “I also feel great responsibility that comes with the job, knowing that the mission is not easy.”

He described the road ahead as “tougher than before.”

“But I am determined to take on the challenge with my conviction that ‘nothing is impossible for Japan,’” he said.

It was the first time for the JFA to re-sign a head coach after a World Cup.

JFA Chairman Kozo Tashima acknowledged that Moriyasu fell short of achieving Japan’s long-held goal of reaching the final eight of a World Cup for the first time.

But JFA officials agreed that Moriyasu was best suited to continue the challenge of entering the quarterfinals, and signing him again “is the shortest way to achieve it,” Tashima said.

He added that the decision to keep Moriyasu at the helm was unanimous.

Tashima also said JFA appreciated the fact that the Moriyasu-led team in Qatar had a positive impact not only on Japan’s soccer world but also society in general.

Moriyasu was named coach of the national team in summer 2018.

Since then, he has built well-mixed teams of hungry young players with little international experience and veterans with multiple World Cup appearances under their belts.

At the World Cup in Qatar, Japan lost to Croatia in a penalty shootout in the round of 16.

But what the team accomplished in the group stage was considered a huge step forward for Japanese soccer.

The team stunned powerhouses Germany and Spain to secure the top spot in the group. And Samurai Blue’s gutsy play against Croatia, which ended up taking third place in the tournament, kept millions of fans up all night.

JFA officials said the agency had considered alternatives, including hiring a foreign coach to lead the national team.

But the JFA decided to focus on continuity by renewing the contract with Moriyasu, the officials said.

Moriyasu had been a midfielder on the national team during his playing days, but the team failed to qualify for the World Cup by losing a match at the very last minute.

After his retirement from the field, Moriyasu became a coach, and he led Sanfrecce Hiroshima to the J.League championship three times.

In 2017, he was named head coach of the national team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The squad finished the fourth at Summer Games held in 2021.

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