Pep Guardiola‘s team come up against the Japanese side at 18:00 (UK) on Tuesday 19 December for a place in the Club World Cup final.
We previously faced Urawa, then known as Mitsubishi Urawa, in a friendly during a whistle stop tour in 1993 and came out 2-0 winners on that day.
Urawa Red Diamonds v City | Match preview
While it’s been more than 30 years since that encounter, City have developed other links to Japan in recent years including pre-season tours, a sister club and a star midfielder for our women’s team.
Every match at the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup is available to watch in the UK on TNT Sports and FIFA+.
For fans outside of the UK, click here to find out how you can watch the matches in Saudi Arabia.
The official Man City app will also have free live radio commentary as part of our usual Matchday Live show that includes studio guests previewing and analysing the action.
Ahead of playing one of the giants of Japanese football on Tuesday, we look at some of the connections between our club and the special country many thousands of miles away.
2023 summer tour
It’s been just a few short months since we were in Urawa’s homeland preparing for the 2023/24 campaign.
After the late finish to the previous season due to the resounding success across the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League, we were in the air to Japan in mid-July.
There we played two sold out friendlies at the National Stadium against Yokohama F. Marinos and Bayern Munich.
The crowd at both matches, particularly in our meeting with the German giants, were there to support the European champions.
As well as the matches and training sessions, we sampled some of the best of Tokyo’s culture with trips to karaoke bars, traditional tea ceremonies and walks through the metropolis’ sprawling parks.
We also made our mark in the community, heading out to coach local youngsters.
Our third kit for this season was also revealed in Tokyo’s Kabuki Hall, with the latest PUMA top displaying all the vibrancy that’s made both City and Tokyo famous around the world.
Yui Hasegawa
The Japanese midfielder is the very heart of Gareth Taylor‘s Barclays Women’s Super League team.
Arriving early in the 2022/23 season, she moved to the Joie Stadium from fellow Barclays Women’s Super League side West Ham United.
And after finding the net on her debut against Leicester City, the midfielder never looked back, with a spot in the 2022/23 PFA Team of the Year alongside Alex Greenwood and Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw just rewards for her exploits.
Hasegawa’s vision and technical prowess have both shone through from the deep-lying midfield role at City.
That’s reflected in her hugely impressive passing numbers, with the Japanese international attempting the third-most of any midfielder in the WSL last season.
Her average per 90 came to 56.8 attempts, with an incredible 50.5 finding their intended target, the best success rate of anyone in her position.
Yokohama F. Marinos
The Nissan Stadium club have been part of the City Football Group since 2014, a period which has seen both City and Yokohama go from strength to strength.
Since the partnership was announced, City have lifted an incredible six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, five League Cups, a UEFA Super Cup and a Champions League.
In the same time, Yokohama have added their sixth and seventh Japanese titles having not previously lifted the top flight trophy since 2004.
1976 tour
21 May 1976 - JAPAN NATIONAL XI 0 CITY 3
23 May 1976 - JAPAN NATIONAL XI 0 CITY 1
26 May 1976 - JAPAN NATIONAL XI 0 CITY 1
28 May 1976 - JAPAN NATIONAL XI 0 CITY 2
After a gruelling 1975/76 season in which City had lifted the League Cup and finished eighth in the top flight, Tony Book’s team set off for the Far East.
The Blues played a Japan representative side four times in succession, winning the opening game 3-0 in front of 15,000 fans.
Dennis Tueart, Denis Leman and Asa Hartford scored the goals and two days later, the teams met again, with Paul Power scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win for the Blues.
Three days later and the teams met again, City winning 1-0 again with Power once again netting the winner.
The fourth and final meeting of the game was also the best attended with 27,000 fans watching City again edge a tight game 2-0 courtesy of Tueart and Leman.
As a gesture of gratitude for making the journey, we were gifted a kabuto, a helmet once worn by samurai warriors.
1993 tour
In April 1993, we set off to Japan for a five-day trip with three games of the season still to go.
A whirlwind tour began by touching down in Tokyo on Friday afternoon before continuing on north of the metropolis to Urawa, where we faced Mitsubishi Urawa (the previous name of Urawa Red Diamonds).
Adie Mike and David Kerr were the scorers before the squad returned to Tokyo for two days ahead of a second match, this time against Hitachi Omiya – which was won by a David White strike.
Less than 24 hours afterwards, we were back in the UK ready to win at Southampton three days later.
2019 tour
27 July 2019 – YOKOHAMA F. MARINOS 1 CITY 3
Our preparations for 2019/20 saw us take in China, Hong Kong and Japan in a 10-day stretch in the second half of July.
Pep Guardiola’s Fourmidables side of the previous season overcame West Ham United in Nanjing before a 0-0 draw with Wolves in Shanghai a few days later.
Hong Kong club Kitchee were on the end of a 6-1 defeat before a trip to Yokohama and our sister club rounded off a successful spell in Asia.
Then managed by new Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou, Yokohama were well on their way to a first J1 League title success in 15 years.
A crowd of 65,052 were treated to a fine spectacle; an open, attacking game that saw both sides try to play out from the back.
Goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Lukas Nmecha sealed the win for City in our final game in the country before the trip earlier this year.
