Kozo Tashima, honorary president of the Japan Football Association, will stand for the FIFA presidency at the election in March, the JFA said. Its board met in Tokyo on Thursday and voted unanimously to support him.
Gianni Infantino, the incumbent, has already declared he will run for re-election. JFA president Tsuneyasu Miyamoto had signaled in October that Japan would back Infantino. That support is now withdrawn.
Tashima is a former JFA president and has served on the FIFA Council since 2015, with a term running to 2027.
A divided football world
Infantino has faced scrutiny this year over the World Cup, where the United States striker Folarin Balogun's suspension was deferred after lobbying by US President Donald Trump. Questions have also been raised about his involvement in a plan to sell part of the World Cup's commercial rights to outside investors.
In August, European confederations and others said Infantino had "crossed a line" and demanded an independent investigation. Calls for him to resign spread.
African and South American confederations and associations in the Middle East have declared their support for Infantino, leaving the game split. The election in March had been framed as a question of whether Infantino would win a fourth term or face a challenger.
Asia's position
At an Asian Football Confederation meeting in Tokyo in October, AFC president Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa said Asia would support Infantino. Miyamoto called keeping step with the AFC "our basic stance."
Takeshi Okada, a JFA vice president, resigned over that remark, saying the gap between it and his own convictions was too wide for him to accept as a sportsman. The JFA was left in turmoil.