- after some months without football -, he signed to join SC Sagamihara. On 27 December 2022, Fujimoto announcement retirement from football after 16 years career as professional with club. National team He made his Japanese National Team debut on 24 March 2007 in a 2-0 friendly victory at home to Peru. Fujimoto came on as a substitute in the 85th minute to replace his high school fellow alumnus Shunsuke Nakamura. His next international involvement came when he made brief second-half appearances in both matches in Japan's double header in June of that year, the 2-0 win over Montenegro and the 0-0 draw with Colombia. He played once more in 2007 as a 73rd minute replacement in the 4-1 home routing of Egypt. It would be almost 3 years before he next pulled in the blue of Japan in their September 2010 home friendly wins over Paraguay and Guatemala, he was once again a substitute in both games. Following his transfer from S-Pulse to Nagoya Grampus he was named in Japan's squad for their victorious 2011 AFC Asian Cup campaign. He came on as a substitute in the final minute of their draw with Jordan in the group stage before earning his first international start in the final of the competition against Australia, a match Japan won 1-0 after extra time. It would be another 9 months before his next international involvement and he again made the starting line up and this time played his first full 90 minutes for Japan in a 1-0 friendly win at home to Vietnam on 7 October 2011, before playing the final 13 minutes of an 8-0 world cup qualifying victory over Tajikistan 4 days later. 2012 would be his final year to earn international caps. He started and scored his sole international goal in a 3-1 win over Iceland in a home friendly on 24 February before again starting in the surprise 1-0 world cup qualifying defeat to Uzbekistan 5 days later. His last appearance for the Samurai Blue came in a 1-1 draw in a friendly at home to Venezuela on 15 August where he played the final 16 minutes. Club statistics As of the end 2022 season 1 - includes Japanese Super Cup appearances. Reserves performance National team statistics Last Update: 8 February 2019 Trivia His father Koju was also a footballer who played for Nippon Kokan of the Japan Soccer