Japan Women

There is no rival written into the Sakura Fifteen's record the way there is for the men's Brave Blossoms, but one result stands in for it: on 10 May 2022, on the Gold Coast, Japan beat Australia's Wallaroos 12–10, the first time the team had ever got the better of them.

The team's debut, on 6 April 1991 against France at the first Women's Rugby World Cup, went the other way entirely: a 62–0 defeat in Aberavon. World Cup results since have stayed modest by comparison, an eleventh-place finish in 2017 the best of them, and the side sat 11th in the world rankings as of April 2026. Seina Saito carries the most caps in the side's history, 53 of them, and led the team at that 2017 tournament; Iroha Nagata took over the captaincy for the 2025 World Cup. Lesley McKenzie coached the side from 2018 through that tournament, before Toshizumi Kitagawa, a Brave Blossoms lock capped 43 times and a veteran of the 2011 World Cup, was appointed her successor in August 2026.

Home matches move between grounds rather than settling on one.