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)] is the 104th edition of the annually contested cup.[1] It as usual features 88 teams representing the university football federation, prefectural football associations, J1 League, J2 League and Japan Football League.[2]
On 19 September 2023, it was announced by JFA that Urawa Red Diamonds is banned from 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.[3] For this reason, instead of one, two specially-designated amateur clubs were designated by JFA, being them 2023 Japan Football League champions Honda FC and 2023 University Championship winners Meiji University. Both teams were given a bye from prefectural qualifications, as usual.
Calendar
The schedule for the first round to the quarter-finals was announced on 15 December 2023 in JFA's 12th Board of Directors meeting.[4][5]
As only J1 and J2 League clubs qualify directly for the first round, teams from outside of it who wants to qualify to the Emperor's Cup (exception being made to the JFA-seeded team), have to undergo a prefectural qualification, with regulations and schedules varying from one association to another. In total, there are 47 prefectural cup qualifications, with the winners of each prefectural cup earning their right to play in the Emperor's Cup, with all of them assigned to start the competition in the first round.
In bold, it's displayed the teams that won each final, and not necessarily the home team.
Urawa Red Diamonds, as a J1 club, would be automatically assigned to the second round. As they were excluded from this year's cup, 2023 Japan Football League winners Honda FC filled the automatic entry slots for the second round. Another team was then, needed to fill the automatic entry slots of the first round. JFA assigned for this slot the 2023 University Championship winners, Meiji University.