In November 2022, Human Rights Watch released a report regarding comments made by the president for the Japan Football Association, in which he commented that "as an association, we of course want to bring issues of discrimination and human rights towards a better direction, but we think right now is the time to focus on soccer". The comment was in response to questions about other teams' actions and stances on LGBT discrimination. Human Rights Watch also highlighted that to date 13 national football associations have supported the demand from rights' groups to remedy abuse suffered by workers in preparation for the tournament; the JFA has not and HRW issued a call to them to do likewise.

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre reached out to JFA to invite them to respond publicly to HRW's article; their response can be read in full below.