Japan's bid to defend the Asian Games men's soccer title came to an end in the quarterfinals after losing 1-0 to hosts South Korea on Sunday.
Japan paid the price of youth and inexperience against its archrival as captain Ryota Oshima gave away a late penalty, which his Korean counterpart Jang Hyun-soo converted to send Lee Kwang-jong's side into Tuesday's semifinal against Thailand, which beat Jordan 2-0 earlier.
North Korea defeated the United Arab Emirates 1-0 and will meet Iraq in the other semifinal. Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 3-0.
Japan coach Makoto Teguramori picked an under-21 side for these games while South Korea — whose players will be exempt from military service if they win a gold medal — have gone all in with an under-23 team including three overage players.
"I didn't want him crossing back inside so I went for it," Kawasaki Frontale midfielder Oshima said. "We knew we would have to persevere but we did want to go on the attack at some point.
"We've been saying ourselves that we wanted to repeat as champions. So if you ask us how we feel about this, all I can say is that we failed."