Volleyball national side
Japan
National team · Japan
«Ryujin Nippon»
Tokyo's Yoyogi National Gymnasium has stayed the volleyball team's most familiar stage even though it plays no fixed home ground, moving between there, Osaka and the Okinawa Suntory Arena depending on the calendar. That gymnasium also happened to host the moment the sport mattered most to Japan: the bronze medal of 1964.
The Japan Volleyball Association, which runs the side, dates to 1927, when it began life as the Greater Japan Volleyball Association before taking its current name in 1946 and joining the FIVB in 1951. What followed decades later became known inside the sport as Japan's Golden Generation: silver at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, then gold in Munich in 1972, with Bronze medals at the 1970 and 1974 World Championships. Names like Haruki Ueda and Shigeo Sato belong to that run.
For years the team carried the nickname Ryūjin Nippon, the Dragon God of Japan, before the association retired it in 2024 as part of a rebrand. Asia has been the more consistent hunting ground since the Golden Generation faded: ten Asian Championship titles and eight Asian Games golds, built on a rivalry with South Korea and China that has never needed a separate name to matter.
Yuji Nishida's power on the outside and Yūki Ishikawa's captaincy have carried the current side back toward the world's top table, most visibly with silver at the 2024 Volleyball Nations League in Łódź. Under coach Laurent Tillie, Japan reached the Olympic quarter-finals in both 2020 and 2024.
Latest results
Fixtures and results| 3 Oct | Asian Games |
Iran
H
|
1:3 | L |
| 2 Oct | Asian Games |
China
H
|
3:2 | W |
| 1 Oct | Asian Games |
Qatar
H
|
3:0 | W |
| 29 Sep | Asian Games |
Pakistan
H
|
3:0 | W |
| 28 Sep | Asian Games |
Kazakhstan
A
|
3:0 | W |
| 27 Sep | Asian Games |
Uzbekistan
H
|
3:0 | W |
Standing
Asian GamesGroup stage · Group A
| # | Team | M | W | L | Goals | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Japan
|
3 | 3 | 0 | 9:0 | 9 |
| 2 |
Pakistan
|
3 | 2 | 1 | 6:4 | 6 |
| 3 |
Kazakhstan
|
3 | 1 | 2 | 4:7 | 3 |
| 4 |
Uzbekistan
|
3 | 0 | 3 | 1:9 | 0 |
Team statistics
matches counted in total: 138| Metric | Total | Home | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matches | 138 | 91 | 47 |
| Scored | 326 | 215 | 111 |
| Conceded | 182 | 115 | 67 |
| Average per match | 2.4 | 2.4 | 2.4 |
| Conceded per game | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| Difference | +144 | +100 | +44 |
Fixtures of Japan
Honours of Japan
- Asian Championship 1975, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 2005, 2009, 2015, 2017, 2023 10
- Asian Games 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1982, 1994, 2010 8
- Olympic Games 1972 1
- FIVB World Cup 1969, 1977 2
- Olympic Games 1968 1
- Volleyball Nations League 2024 1
- FIVB World Championship 1970, 1974 2
- FIVB World Grand Champions Cup 2009 1
- Olympic Games 1964 1
- Volleyball Nations League 2023 1