Japan Women

The Sano International Cricket Ground, in Tochigi Prefecture, holds 2,000 people, with 500 permanent seats around the square, and it is where Japan's women have built what international record they have. The Japan Cricket Association, formed in 1984, runs the side and joined the International Cricket Council five years later; the women's programme followed the sport's slower path into the country, entering the International Women's Cricket Council only in 1995.

The team's debut came at the 2003 IWCC Trophy in the Netherlands, where it played its first and, as it turned out, only One Day Internationals. Japan has not appeared in that format since. Twenty20 became the team's actual home ground in 2019, when it played its first match in the format, and the results since have clustered around Asia rather than the wider game: runners-up finishes in the Women's Twenty20 East Asia Cup in 2017 and again in 2024, with third place in three other editions, and a runner-up finish at the 2019 ICC Women's Twenty20 World Cup East Asia-Pacific Qualifier. The one honour that predates the T20I era, a bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, remains the outlier on the list.

Erika Oda holds the team's run-scoring record in T20Is with 765, just ahead of Mai Yanagida's 760, and it is Yanagida who now captains the side. The bowling has been carried by Ahilya Chandel, with 38 wickets. Mizuno supplies the kit.

Japan reached the quarter-finals of the 2024 ACC Women's Premier Cup, the closest recent measure of where the side sits against the rest of the region.