, often called or simply , is a football stadium located in Midori-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Currently, J1 League club

Urawa Red Diamonds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

use this stadium for home games. It is the largest football-specific stadium in Japan and is one of the largest stadiums in Asia. It has hosted the semi-finals of both the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

and the football tournament at the 2020 Summer Olympics. It is also the home stadium of Japan national football team in almost every

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

qualifying matches.

Location

The stadium is a 15 to 20 minute walk from Urawa-Misono Station on the Saitama Railway Line.

History

Built by Azusa Sekkei to host matches of the

, construction was completed in September 2001. The stadium holds 63,700 people, although for segregation reasons league games hosted at the ground have a reduced capacity of 62,300. The Saitama Stadium hosted four matches during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, including co-host Japan's first match against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Between 2005 and 2007, the Urawa Red Diamonds'

local derby Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

rival Omiya Ardija hosted matches here along with Urawa Komaba due to expansion of its home Ōmiya Park Soccer Stadium.

2002 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the venues of the

, and held the following matches:

Features

*Building area: 54,420m² *Total floor area: 62,674m² *Covered area: 29,000m² *Stand inclination: Max. 30 degree angle

Gallery

References

External links

*
Stadium Guide Article
{{Olympic venues football Sports venues in Saitama (city) Urawa Red Diamonds 2002 FIFA World Cup stadiums in Japan Venues of the 2020 Summer Olympics Football venues in Japan Sports venues completed in 2001 Olympic football venues 2001 establishments in Japan