Japan warns fans not to go to North Korea for World Cup qualifier

Japan has advised football supporters against trying to journey to the "unfriendly" North Korea for the upcoming World Cup qualifier in Pyongyang next week.

The Tokyo foreign ministry has strongly urged the general public to avoid attending the match on March 26th, the first between the two sides in North Korea since 2011.

"As you are aware, North Korea holds a hostile stance towards Japan and travel is not advisable for the general public," the statement was posted on X, previously known as Twitter.

The match between Japan and North Korea will take place in Tokyo on Thursday as part of the qualifying rounds for the 2026 World Cup, with the return fixture scheduled for next week.

While Japan has long advised its citizens against traveling to North Korea, it does not explicitly prohibit them from doing so. The two countries do not maintain diplomatic relations.

It remains uncertain how many fans, if any, will attempt to travel for the match. Those interested would require a North Korean visa to make the trip.

Fourteen government officials, along with a limited number of media outlets, will be accompanying the Japan team for the match, according to a report by Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Last month, the first leg of the women's play-off for the Paris Olympics was moved from the North Korean capital to a neutral ground in Saudi Arabia.

The relationship between Japan and North Korea has been plagued by various issues, including the compensation for Japan's harsh occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. More recently, tensions have risen due to Pyongyang's missile launches over Japanese territory.

The abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s, where they were forced to train spies in Japanese language and customs, has also been a significant point of contention.

The match in Tokyo on Thursday was expected to attract a considerable number of North Korean supporters from Japan's ethnic Korean community, which consists of approximately 300,000 people. Most of them are descendants of civilians who were taken from their homes during Japan's colonization of the Korean peninsula.