Basketball national side

Japan Women

National team · Japan

«Akatsuki Five»

86 Matches

57 wins

29 losses

6830–5673 Points

+1157 Difference

79.4 Average per match

Form W W W W W L

The Akatsuki Five took shape in the early 1950s as Japan built out women's competition alongside the men's national side: the squad's first official tournament appearance came at the 1974 Asian Games in Tehran, where Japan won gold. A year later the team reached the final of the 1975 World Championship in Colombia, finishing runner-up, and its first Olympic outing followed at Montreal in 1976, where it placed fifth.

Asia has been the team's proving ground since. Japan has taken six FIBA Women's Asia Cup titles, the first in 1970 and the most recent in 2021, with nine further final defeats along the way — the latest to Australia in 2025 alongside China and South Korea.

What changed the team's standing internationally was Tokyo. Playing the 2020 Olympics on home floor in 2021, under coach Tom Hovasse, Japan reached the final and took silver — the country's first Olympic medal in basketball, men's or women's.

A World Cup title has still eluded them: 1975 remains the closest they have come, and the gold at that tournament has gone to other nations ever since.

Latest results

Fixtures and results

26 Sep	Asian Games Women	South Korea Women H	70:75	L
25 Sep	Asian Games Women	Chinese Taipei Women H	80:52	W
24 Sep	Asian Games Women	Thailand Women H	86:29	W
22 Sep	Asian Games Women	Philippines Women H	89:67	W
20 Sep	Asian Games Women	Kazakhstan Women A	88:23	W
17 Sep	Asian Games Women	Hong Kong Women H	114:37	W