Celtic's KyogoFuruhashi and Reo Hatate have been censured by their nation by and by as Japan lead trainer Hajime Moriyasu seemed to scrutinize the norm of Scottish football. This season, the Parkhead duo has been among the best in the cinch Premiership. Furuhashi leads the scoring charts with 26 goals, and Hatate is a strong contender for Player of the Year with eight goals and nine assists in 37 games.

Daizen Maeda, a Celtic teammate, was the only member of the club's Japanese contingent selected for the tournament in Qatar last year.

Both players also failed to make the World Cup team. Maeda is getting ready to fly out to Tokyo for the matches against Uruguay on March 24 and Colombia on March 28 of the Kirin Challenge Cup, while Furuhashi and Hatate remain on the international periphery.
The J-League, as well as leagues in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium, are represented by the majority of the Japan squad, which currently competes in the top tiers of the German, French, Spanish, and English football leagues. When asked about the Celtic duo's absence, Moriyasu told the Japan Times: "I took into consideration the “level of the league” when deciding on my call-ups." I've watched every Celtics game and seen what they've done and how important they are to the team.
However, there is no prerequisite to be called up; it’s a decision that covers everything. When making a decision, we consider the league's level and a variety of other factors. We concentrated on the Qatari team and some new players for this squad. Other call-ups will occur. As I stated, our goal is to form the strongest possible team by 2026. Furuhashi has made 13 appearances for Japan, the majority of which occurred before his transfer to Celtic in the summer of 2021. Hatate has only earned one cap, which came in a World Cup qualifier against Vietnam in March of last year.