Japan national basketball team

Japan
FIBA ranking	48 1[1]
Joined FIBA	1936
FIBA zone	FIBA Asia
National federation	Japan Basketball Association
Coach	Kenji Hasegawa
Olympic Games
Appearances	6 (First in 1936)
Medals	None
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	4 (First in 1963)
Medals	None
Asian Championships
Appearances	27 (First in 1960)
Medals	Gold: 1965, 1971 Silver: 1969, 1975, 1979, 1983, 1997 Bronze: 1960, 1967, 1977, 1981, 1987, 1991, 1995
Asian Games
Appearances	16 (First in 1951)
Medals	Silver: 1951, 1962 Bronze: 1954, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2014
Uniforms
Light Dark

Former logo of the Japan Basketball Association JABBA

Japan against China at the 1923 Far Eastern Games.

Takuya Kawamura has drawn the interest of scouts worldwide

Kosuke Takeuchi has been the face of the national team for many years

The Japanese national basketball team represents Japan in international basketball competitions. It is administered by the Japan Basketball Association (JBA). (Japanese: 日本バスケットボール協会)^[2] A 1936 founding member of FIBA Asia, Japan has one of Asia's longest basketball traditions.

Japan has one of the most successful basketball teams in Asia. It has won the Asian Basketball Championships twice and is the second leading nation in qualifications to the event. The team qualified for the Olympic Games six times and for the FIBA World Cup four times.

Japan has traditionally brought forth several of Asia's elite basketball players who competed in the NBA and in Europe. These players include Yuta Tabuse, J.R. Sakuragi, Takuya Kawamura, Takumi Ishizaki and others. However, for about two decades, they rarely played for the national team, which caused Team Japan to fall behind Asia's elite competition from Iran, South Korea, Philippines and China.

In 2014, Yuta Tabuse and several of Japan's top players returned to the national team and helped to reach its best finish in almost 20 years.

History

Japan's national team had its first international tournament at the 3rd Far Eastern Games held in Tokyo in 1917. Japan representative at this time was the team of the Kyoto YMCA. Later, the team was a founding member of the Olympics Basketball competition in Berlin 1936. Henceforth, they participated almost every time until 1976. Team Japan was a regular at world tournaments. It had its debut at the FIBA World Championship in 1963. It was the top team in Asia, as it won the championship there in 1965 and 1971. Since the rise of China, Japan declined a little bit and appearances at global events became scarcer.

As runner-up at the Fukuoka Universiade in 1995, Team Nippon (as the Japanese are also called) had a streak of success and qualified for the 1998 FIBA World Championship, its first qualification in over 30 years. Coached by the Croat Željko Pavličević, the team played well but did not make it out of the primary round, where it lost its fourth-place battle against former Semi-finalist New Zealand.

In recent years, Japan played against more intense competition from the Middle East. Combined with many player absences from the team, Team Nippon struggled to win medals at the Asian Championships since its silver medal in 1997. At the 2008 event in their home country (Tokushima), the team finished at the 8th position and missed qualification for both the Beijing Olympic Tournament and qualification to the 2010 FIBA World Championship. At the 2009 FIBA Asia tournament the team sank to No. 10 position, its worst performance. This was partly due to the change of the head coach just before the tournament.

To better the results, the American coach Tom Wisman took over the management of the team in 2010 and made some considerable improvements. Wisman just came off a phenomenal year in the Japanese Basketball League (JBL) where he had led Tochigi Brex to its first and only national title. At the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup in 2010, Team Nippon was defeated by host Lebanon but exceeded expectations as it finished as runner-up. At the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship, the listed goal of the Final Four was missed as the team reached the 7th position out of 15. The team managed to defeate finalists, Jordan, but then had to play Korea in the first playoff round and were defeated.

In March 2012, the Japan Association dismissed Wissmann and the country's coaching legend Kimikazu Suzuki took over the reigns of the team. Suzuki, concurrently coaching the Aisin SeaHorses Mikawa had initial success as Team Nippon finished Runner-up at the next FIBA Asian Cup which was held in Tokyo in September 2012. Aimed at the acquisition of a 2014 FIBA World Cup berth, the team finished the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship at the 9th position where it lost its last three games.

Competitive record

Olympic Games

FIBA World championship

FIBA Asia championship

Year	Position	Tournament	Host
1960	03 !	1960 ABC Championship	Manila, Philippines
1963	–	1963 ABC Championship	Taipei City, Chinese Taipei
1965	01 !	1965 ABC Championship	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1967	03 !	1967 ABC Championship	Seoul, South Korea
1969	02 !	1969 ABC Championship	Bangkok, Thailand
1971	01 !	1971 ABC Championship	Tokyo, Japan
1973	4	1973 ABC Championship	Manila, Philippines
1975	02 !	1975 ABC Championship	Bangkok, Thailand
1977	03 !	1977 ABC Championship	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1979	02 !	1979 ABC Championship	Nagoya, Japan
1981	03 !	1981 ABC Championship	Calcutta, India
1983	02 !	1983 ABC Championship	Hong Kong
1985	5	1985 ABC Championship	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1987	03 !	1987 ABC Championship	Bangkok, Thailand
1989	4	1989 ABC Championship	Beijing, China
1991	03 !	1991 ABC Championship	Kobe, Japan
1993	7	1993 ABC Championship	Jakarta, Indonesia
1995	03 !	1995 ABC Championship	Seoul, South Korea
1997	02 !	1997 ABC Championship	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
1999	5	1999 ABC Championship	Fukuoka, Japan
2001	6	2001 ABC Championship	Shanghai, China
2003	6	2003 ABC Championship	Harbin, China
2005	5	2005 FIBA Asia Championship	Doha, Qatar
2007	8	2007 FIBA Asia Championship	Tokushima, Japan
2009	10	2009 FIBA Asia Championship	Tianjin, China
2011	7	2011 FIBA Asia Championship	Wuhan, China
2013	9	2013 FIBA Asia Championship	Manila, Philippines
2015	4	2015 FIBA Asia Championship	Changsha, China
2017	TBD	2017 FIBA Asia Championship	To Be Determined

Current team

Roster for the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments:^[3]

Japan men's national basketball team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Age Ht. Club 1.0 !PG 0 Tabuse, Yuta 7001350000000000000♠35 – (1980-10-05)5 October 1980 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) Link Tochigi Brex JPN ! 1.0 !PG 3 Tsuji, Naoto 7001260000000000000♠26 – (1989-09-08)8 September 1989 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) Toshiba BT JPN ! 2.0 !SG 6 Hiejima, Makoto 7001240000000000000♠24 – (1990-08-11)11 August 1990 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Aisin SeaHorses Mikawa JPN ! 5.0 !C 8 Ota, Atsuya 7001320000000000000♠32 – (1984-04-06)6 April 1984 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Higashimikawa Phoenix JPN ! 5.0 !C 10 Takeuchi, Kosouke 7001310000000000000♠31 – (1985-01-29)29 January 1985 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Hiroshima Dragonflies JPN ! 1.0 !PG 11 Hashimoto, Ryomo 7001280000000000000♠28 – (1988-05-11)11 May 1988 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) Aisin SeaHorses Mikawa JPN ! 3.5 !F 12 Watanabe, Yuta 7001210000000000000♠21 – (1994-10-13)13 October 1994 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) George Washington Colonials USA ! 5.0 !C 15 Takeuchi, Joji 7001310000000000000♠31 – (1985-01-29)29 January 1985 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) Hitachi SR JPN ! 1.5 !G 16 Matsui, Keijuro 7001300000000000000♠30 – (1985-10-16)16 October 1985 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) Toyota Alvark JPN ! 2.0 !SG 25 Furukawa, Takatoshi 7001280000000000000♠28 – (1987-10-20)20 October 1987 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Link Tochigi Brex JPN ! 3.0 !SF 34 Ono, Ryumo 7001280000000000000♠28 – (1988-01-06)6 January 1988 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Chiba Jets JPN ! 1.5 !G 42 Hirose, Kenta 7001260000000000000♠26 – (1989-08-29)29 August 1989 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Hitachi SR JPN !	Head Coach Kenji Hasegawa Assistant Coaches Norio Sassa Legend Club – describes last club before the tournament Age – describes age on July 4, 2016

Head coaches

• Tom Newell – 2000
• Kenji Yoshida – 2000-2002
• Željko Pavličević – 2004-06
• Kimikazu Suzuki – 2007
• Osamu Kuraishi – 2009
• Thomas Wisman – 2010–11
• Kimikazu Suzuki – 2012–13
• Kenji Hasegawa – 2014–^[4]

Past Rosters

Scroll down to see more.

Kit

Manufacturer

2015: Under Armour ^[5]

Sponsor

2015: Xebio ^[5]

See also

• Japan women's national basketball team
• Japan national under-19 basketball team
• Japan national under-17 basketball team
• Japan national 3x3 team

References

External links

• Official website
• FIBA profile
• Japan Basketball Records at FIBA Archive

Videos

• Japan - Highlights - 2015 FIBA Asia Championship Youtube.com video

National sports teams of Japan
Women's teams	American football Association Football FU-23 FU-20 FU-17 Futsal Baseball Basketball FU-19 FU-17 Boxing Cricket Field hockey Gymnastics Handball Ice hockey F U-18 Roller Hockey Rugby Union F7 Softball Squash Tennis Volleyball Water Polo
Men's teams	American football Association Football MU-23 MU-20 MU-17 Futsal Beach Soccer Cerebral Palsy Australian rules football Badminton Bandy Baseball Basketball MU-19 MU-17 3x3 Boxing Cricket Field hockey Handball Ice hockey M Junior M U18 Kabaddi Korfball Lacrosse Roller Hockey Rugby Union M7 Rugby league Squash Tennis Volleyball Water Polo
Olympics Paralympics Asian Games