Following the Asian Cup tournament, Kawashima kept four consecutive clean sheets in a row against Peru, Czech Republic, South Korea and North Korea. He kept two more clean sheets against Tajikistan in both matches, both of which were victories. Between 23 May 2012 and 8 June 2012 Kawashima kept three clean sheets in a row against Azerbaijan, Oman and Jordan. Later in the year, he kept more three clean sheets in a row for the second time this year against UAE, Iraq and France. In May 2013, Kawashima was called up by the national side for the 2013 Confederations Cup squad. He won his 48th cap for his country in a 2–1 loss against Mexico on 22 June 2013, as he went on to feature all three matches, all of them resulted in losses while Japan was eliminated from the tournament. Despite the defeat, Kawashima's performance was praised by Brazilian sports newspaper "Reims". In May 2014, Kawashima was named in Japan's preliminary squad for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. In the end, he made it to the final cut for the 23 man squad. Kawashima started all three matches, but was eliminated from the tournament in the group stage. He kept a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw against Greece on 20 June 2014. After the match Kawashima reflected about his time at the World Cup in Brazil, later stating that his performance against Colombia haunted him. On 14 October 2014, he captained the national side for the first time, in a 4–0 loss against Brazil. In December 2014, Kawashima was named in Japan's squad for the Asian Cup in Australia. Kawashima started the tournament well keeping three clean sheets in the group stage matches that saw them through to the quarter–finals. However, in a match against UAE on 23 January 2015, he conceded a goal from Ali Mabkhout before Japan equalised and the match was played throughout 120 minutes; ultimately, they were eliminated after losing in penalty–shootout. Later in June, he kept two clean sheets in a row on 11 and 16 June 2015 against Iraq and Singapore. However, after leaving Standard Liège, Kawashima was called up to the national team and lost his place to Shusaku Nishikawa and Masaaki Higashiguchi throughout the rest of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. He made his first appearance for the side in twelve months on 3 June 2016, in a