The Japan national soccer team will be based in Iwata City, Shizuoka Prefecture before and during next year's World Cup, the Japan Football Association announced Thursday in Tokyo.
Iwata beat four other candidates -- the J. Village national training center in Fukushima, the Shimizu national training center and two other facilities in Shizuoka Prefecture -- to win the nod from Japan coach Philippe Troussier and the JFA technical development committee.
Troussier and his men chose Iwata for its ideal accessibility to Japan's three first-round World Cup games -- Saitama, Yokohama and Osaka -- and good training facilities. The accommodation facilities and environments around the area are also most suitable for a long stay, the JFA said.
The Japanese team will practice at Jubilo Soccer Stadium and another facility called the Iwata Sports Cultural Exchange Village from late May through to the end of the World Cup. The team will stay at a lodge at a Yamaha golf course, called Yamaha Resort Katsuragi Kitanomaru.
The lodge is built in a style featuring old Japanese architecture.
"I wanted to find a place for us that has great facilities and environment that enables us to focus on our game and also symbolizes Japan. We'll be able to keep our team calm and quiet there. It's perfect for a team to play in the World Cup," Troussier said in a statement released by the JFA.