Highlights
- Weekly Shonen Jump featured Luffy in Japan’s Samurai Blue uniform to support the country’s FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign.
- Japan continues using anime franchises like Blue Lock and Haikyu!! to promote sports culture among youth.
- The crossover highlights anime’s growing role in Japan’s global branding strategy.
Shueisha deployed its biggest manga property, One Piece, for Japan’s national football campaign ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 2026’s Weekly Shonen Jump Issue 26, revealed on May 25, features a special cover showing Monkey D. Luffy wearing the Samurai Blue uniform and holding a soccer ball. Luffy’s signature star hat is also in blue for the cover art.
Weekly Shonen Jump’s One Piece campaign falls into Japan’s growing promotional activity around the 2026 FIFA World Cup. “Samurai Blue” is the popular nickname of Japan’s national football team, used by the Japan Football Association (JFA) across international competitions.
The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. A record 48 national teams will compete in the group stage, with the top 32 advancing to the knockout round. Japan qualified as the first nation to secure a berth and entered Group F.
Luffy's Samurai Blue Jersey and Japan's Anime x Football Playbook
The One Piece x Samurai Blue crossover is not an isolated piece of fan art. Japan has previously used anime IPs such as Blue Lock, Captain Tsubasa, and Haikyu!! in sports promotions and merchandise campaigns.
JFA has been using popular anime IP to promote national football and attract the youth as well. It recently collaborated with football-based manga Blue Lock to create the manga-inspired scouting initiative, FUTURE CAMP.
For the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Adidas worked with Blue Lock and Giant Killing illustrators to design Japan’s origami-motif jersey. The strategy resonated culturally, particularly after Japan won over Germany and drew massive international attention to the Blue Lock tie-in.
The Luffy wearing the Samurai Blue uniform cover art furthers Japan’s anime x football promotional initiatives. Even though it is not a sports-related title, One Piece remains culturally significant, with over 600M copies of manga in circulation and a decade-old anime series that is still a streaming success.
One Piece has also been used as a symbol of resistance, freedom, and the pursuit of a dream. The Samurai Blue One Piece campaign shows how deeply anime has become embedded in Japan’s global branding strategy.
