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Japan

Association	Japan Volleyball Association
Confederation	AVC
FIVB ranking	11 (as of 2008-08-25)
Olympics
Appearances	8

The Japan men's national volleyball team is the volleyball national team of Japan. The Asian squad started to play an important role in international competitions in the 1960s, scoring an eighth place at their inaugural World Championship in Brazil in 1960. Japanese Volleyball was in ascendance at that time and the national team went on to place fifth at the next two World Championships in the Soviet Union (1962) and Czechoslovakia (1966).

Japan joined the world elite at the beginning of the next decade, winning the bronze twice at the World Championships in Bulgaria (1970) and Mexico (1974). The then mighty Japan also played a leading role at Olympic tournaments, reaching the podium three times in a row, winning the bronze medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the silver four years later in Mexico and finally triumphing in Munich (1972). The 1984 World Championship in Argentina also saw Japan ending up in fourth place. The country has been waiting for a big success since then.

Results

World Cup

• 1965 — 4th place
• 1969 — 2nd place
• 1977 — 2nd place
• 1981 — 6th place
• 1985 — 6th place
• 1989 — 6th place
• 1991 — 4th place
• 1995 — 5th place
• 1999 — 10th place
• 2003 — 9th place
• 2007 — 9th place

World League

• 1990 — 5th place
• 1991 — 7th place
• 1992 — 10th place
• 1993 — 5th place
• 1994 — 7th place
• 1995 — 8th place
• 1996 — 9th place
• 1997 — 12th place
• 1998 — did not compete
• 1999 — did not compete
• 2000 — did not compete
• 2001 — 9th place
• 2002 — 13th place
• 2003 — 13th place
• 2004 — 10th place
• 2005 — 10th place
• 2006 — 13th place
• 2007 — 13th place
• 2008 — 6th place

World Grand Champions Cup

• 1993 — 4th place
• 1997 — 5th place
• 2001 — 5th place
• 2005 — 4th place
• 2009 — 3rd place

Asian Games

• 1958 — 1st place
• 1962 — 1st place
• 1966 — 1st place
• 1970 — 1st place
• 1974 — 1st place
• 1978 — 2nd place
• 1982 — 1st place
• 1986 — 4th place
• 1990 — 3rd place
• 1994 — 1st place
• 1998 — 4th place
• 2002 — 3rd place
• 2006 — 5th place

Squads

• 1998 World Championship — 16th place

  Kentaro Asahi, Nobutaka Hirano, Yoichi Kato, Masayoshi Manabe, Katsuyuki Minami, Norihiko Miyazaki, Yuichi Nakagaichi, Takashi Narita, Koichi Nishimura, Masaji Ogino, Hideyuki Otake, and Minoru Takeuchi. Head Coach: Futoshi Teramawari.

• 2002 World Championship — 9th place (tied)

  Yuta Abe, Nobuyoshi Hosokawa, Nobuhiro Ito, Hiroyuki Kai, Yoichi Kato , Hiroaki Kawaura, Takeshi Kitajima, Atsushi Kobayashi, Ryu Morishige, Katsutoshi Tsumagari, Makoto Yamaguchi, and Takahiro Yamamoto. Head Coach: Mikiyasu Tanaka.

• 2003 FIVB World Cup — 9th place

  Yuta Abe, Nobuyoshi Hosokawa, Nobuhiro Ito, Atsushi Kobayashi, Yoichi Kato , Takehiro Kihara, Akira Koshiya, Ryu Morishige, Kenji Onoue, Katsutoshi Tsumagari, Takahiro Yamamoto, and Daisuke Usami. Head Coach: Mikiyasu Tanaka.

• 2005 World Grand Champions Cup — 4th place

  Hiroyuki Kai, Kazuma Kishimoto, Masaji Ogino , Katsuyuki Minami, Kota Yamamura, Rio Matsunaga, Kyohei Shibata, Katsutoshi Tsumagari, Yu Koshikawa, and Kosuke Tomonaga. Head Coach: Tatsuya Ueta.

• 2006 FIVB World League — 13th place

  Yuta Abe, Shinya Chiba, Yusuke Ishijima, Yu Koshikawa, Keisuke Kurihara, Akira Masuno, Yoshihiko Matsumoto, Ryuji Naohiro, Masaji Ogino, Kenji Onoue, Nobuharu Saito, Yoshifumi Suzuki, Yohei Takasugi, Osamu Tanabe, Kosuke Tomonaga, Katsutoshi Tsumagari, Takahiro Yamamoto, and Kota Yamamura. Head Coach: Tatsuya Ueta.

Current team

Team Manager: Hideo Hagiwara
Head coach: Tatsuya Ueta
Assistant Coach: Yoshito Kubo
Trainer: Hideyuki Otake

#	Name	Birthdate	Age (2007)	Club
1	Nobuharu Saito	1973	34	Toray Arrows
2	Hiroaki Kawaura	1975	32	Toyoda Gosei Trefuerza
3	Shinya Chiba	1977	30	Osaka Blazers Sakai
4	Shunichi Shimano	1981	26	Toyoda Gosei Trefuerza
5	Hiroyuki Kai	1978	29	Toyoda Gosei Trefuerza
6	Ryuji Naohiro	1978	29	JT Thunders
7	Takahiro Yamamoto	1978	29	Panasonic Panthers
8	Yusuke Imada	1981	26	Toray Arrows
9	Takaaki Tomimatsu	1984	23	Toray Arrows
10	Osamu Tanabe	1979	28	Toray Arrows
11	Yoshihiko Matsumoto	1981	26	NEC Blue Rockets
12	Kota Yamamura	1980	27	Suntory Sunbirds
13	Yuta Abe	1981	26	Toray Arrows
14	Ryu Morishige	1980	27	Toyoda Gosei Trefuerza
15	Katsutoshi Tsumagari	1975	32	Suntory Sunbirds
16	Yusuke Ishijima	1984	23	Osaka Blazers Sakai
17	Yu Koshikawa	1984	23	Suntory Sunbirds
18	Kosuke Tomonaga	1980	27	Osaka Blazers Sakai
19	Kunihiro Shimizu	1986	21	Tokai University VBC

See also

• Volleyball
• Japan women's national volleyball team