Japan men's national basketball team
 | |||
| 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) | ||
| FIBA World Cup | |||
| Appearances | 4 (First in 1963) | ||
| 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 | ||
|
| |||
The Japanese national basketball team represents Japan in international basketball competitions. It is governed 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.
In the last decades, Japan 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, they rarely play for the national team, which caused Team Japan to fall behind Asia's elite competition from Iran, South Korea, Philippines and China.
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 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.
Competitions
Olympic Games
| Year | Position | Tournament | Host |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | 9 | Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics | Berlin, Germany |
| 1956 | 10 | Basketball at the 1956 Summer Olympics | Melbourne, Australia |
| 1960 | 15 | Basketball at the 1960 Summer Olympics | Rome, Italy |
| 1964 | 10 | Basketball at the 1964 Summer Olympics | Tokyo, Japan |
| 1972 | 14 | Basketball at the 1972 Summer Olympics | Munich, Germany |
| 1976 | 11 | Basketball at the 1976 Summer Olympics | Montreal, Canada |
| 2016 | To Be Determined | Basketball at the 2016 Summer Olympics | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| 2020 | Qualified As Host | Basketball at the 2020 Summer Olympics | Tokyo, Japan |
FIBA World championship
| Year | Position | Tournament | Host |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | 13 | 1963 FIBA World Championship | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| 1967 | 11 | 1967 FIBA World Championship | Uruguay |
| 1998 | 14 | 1998 FIBA World Championship | Athens, Greece |
| 2006 | 20 | 2006 FIBA World Championship | Japan |
| 2019 | To Be Determined | 2019 FIBA World Championship | China |
FIBA Asia championship
Team
Current roster
Roster for the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship.
Head coach: Kenji Hasegawa
| # | Pos | Name | Club | Date of Birth | Height |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | PG | Yuta Tabuse |  Link Tochigi Brex |
5 October 1980 (aged 34) | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) |
| 6 | PG | Makoto Heijima | Aisin Seahorses Mikawa |
11 August 1990 (aged 25) | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) |
| 8 | C | Atsuya Ota | Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix |
4 June 1984 (aged 31) | 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) |
| 10 | PG | Ryoma Hashimoto | Aisin Seahorses Mikawa |
11 May 1988 (aged 27) | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) |
| 14 | SG | Kosuke Kanamaru | Aisin Seahorses Mikawa |
8 March 1989 (aged 26) | 1.92 m (6 ft 3+1⁄2 in) |
| 15 | PF | Joji Takeuchi | Hitachi SunRockers |
29 January 1985 (aged 30) | 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) |
| 16 | SG | Keijuro Matsui | Toyota Alvark |
16 October 1985 (aged 29) | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| 17 | PF | Gaku Arao | Chiba Jets |
15 January 1987 (aged 28) | 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) |
| 24 | SG | Daiki Tanaka | Toyota Alvark |
3 September 1991 (aged 24) | 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) |
| 25 | SG | Takatoshi Furukawa | Link Tochigi Brex |
20 October 1987 (aged 27) | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) |
| 34 | SF | Ryumo Ono | Chiba Jets |
6 January 1988 (aged 27) | 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) |
| 42 | SF | Kenta Hirose | Hitachi SunRockers |
11 July 1985 (aged 30) | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) |
Head coaches
Tom Newell – 2000
Kenji Yoshida – 2000-2002
Željko Pavličević – 2004-06- Kimikazu Suzuki – 2007
- Osamu Kuraishi – 2009
- Thomas Wisman – 2010–11[3]
- Kimikazu Suzuki – 2012–13
- Kenji Hasegawa – 2014–[4]
Past Rosters
- Scroll down to see more.
1936 Olympic Games: finished 13th among 21 teams
Riichi Cho, T.Nakae, S.Ri, K.Yokoyama, T.Kanakogi, M.Maeda, U.Munakata, S.Matsui
1956 Olympic Games: finished 10th among 15 teams
Setsuo Nara, Jose Rodriguez, Kenichi Imaizumi, Hiroshi Saito, Reizo Ohira, Hitoshi Konno, Takashi Itoyama, Manabu Fujita, Takeo Sugiyama, Tetsuro Noborisaka, Riichi Arai (Coach: M.Maeda)
1960 Olympic Games: finished 15th among 16 teams
Setsuo Nara, Shutaro Shoji, Hiroshi Saito, Takashi Itoyama, Takeo Sugiyama, Kenichi Imaizumi, Yasukuni Oshima, Shoji Kamata, Masashi Shiga, Takashi Masuda, Kaoru Wakabayashi, Hideo Kanekawa (Coach: M.Maeda)
1963 World Championship: finished 13th among 13 teams
Setsuo Nara, Takashi Masuda, Masashi Shiga, Yasukuni Oshima, Kaoru Wakabayashi, Keizo Okayama, Isamu Yamaguchi, Yoshikuni Awano, Fumihiko Moroyama, Katsuji Tsunoda, Kunihiko Nakamura, Yoshitaka Egawa (Coach: Shiro Yoshii)
1964 Olympic Games: finished 10th among 16 teams
Takashi Masuda, Setsuo Nara, Masashi Shiga, Kaoru Wakabayashi, Fumihiko Moroyama, Katsuji Tsunoda, Kunihiko Nakamura, Yoshitaka Egawa, Nobuo Kaiho, Akira Kodama, Katsuo Bai, Seiji Fujie (Coach: Marco Antonio de Venetis)
1967 World Championship: finished 11th among 13 teams
Kaoru Wakabayashi, Fumihiko Moroyama, Kunihiko Nakamura, Yoshitaka Egawa, Akira Kodama, Masatomo Taniguchi, Nobuo Hattori, Kenji Soda, Masahiko Yoshida, Isao Kimura, Seiji Igarashi (Coach: Shutaro Shoji)
1972 Olympic Games: finished 14th among 16 teams
Kenji Soda, Masatomo Taniguchi, Nobuo Hattori, Kunihiko Yokoyama, Atsushi Somamoto, Hirofumi Numata, Shigeaki Abe, Mineo Yoshikawa, Kazufumi Sakai, Nobuo Chigusa, Satoshi Mori, Katsuhiko Sugita (Coach: S.Kasahara)
1976 Olympic Games: finished 11th among 12 teams
Hirofumi Numata, Shigeaki Abe, Satoshi Mori, Norihiko Kitahara, Hideki Hamaguchi, Kiyohide Kuwata, Koji Yamamoto, Yutaka Fujimoto, Shigeto Shimizu, Fumio Saito, Nobuo Chigusa, Shoji Yuki (Coach: Masahiko Yoshida)
1998 World Championship: finished 14th among 16 teams
Kenichi Sako, Maikeru Takahashi, Akifumi Yamasaki, Hiroshi Nagano, Makoto Hasegawa, Takehiko Orimo, Satoshi Sakumoto, Hiroyuki Tominaga, Takahiro Setsumasa, Makoto Minamiyama, Takeshi Yuki, Satoru Furuta (Coach: Mototaka Kohama)
2006 World Championship: finished 20th among 24 teams
Takehiko Orimo, Satoru Furuta, Takahiro Setsumasa, Shunsuke Ito, Joji Takeuchi, Kei Igarashi, Shinsuke Kashiwagi, Daiji Yamada, Ryota Sakurai, Kosuke Takeuchi, Takuya Kawamura, Tomoo Amino (Coach: Zeljko Pavlicevic)
2013 FIBA Asia Championship: finished 9th among 15 teams
Head Coach: Kimikazu Suzuki
Assistant Coach:
| # | Name | Date of birth | Height | Pos | Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | KJ Matsui | 16 October 1985 | 188cm | SG | Toyota Alvark |
| 5 | Daiki Tanaka | 3 September 1991 | 191cm | F | Tokai University |
| 6 | Makoto Hiejima | 11 August 1990 | 190cm | G | Aisin Seahorses |
| 7 | Atsuya Ohta | 4 June 1984 | 206cm | C | Higashimikawa Phoenix |
| 8 | Yuta Watanabe | 13 October 1994 | 201cm | SF | George Washington University |
| 9 | Takahiro Kurihara | 6 November 1987 | 192cm | G | Toshiba BraveThunders |
| 10 | Kosuke Takeuchi | 29 January 1985 | 206cm | PF | Toyota Alvark |
| 11 | Ryota Sakurai | 13 March 1983 | 194cm | PG | Levanga Hokkaido |
| 12 | J.R. Sakuragi | 30 October 1976 | 203cm | C | Aisin Seahorses |
| 13 | Naoto Tsuji | 8 September 1989 | 185cm | PG | Toshiba BraveThunders |
| 14 | Kosuke Kanamaru | 8 March 1989 | 192cm | F | Aisin Seahorses |
| 15 | Sean Hiroshi Hinkley | 3 April 1991 | 200cm | PF | Toyota Alvark |
2014 Asian Games: finished 3rd among 16 teams Template:2014 Asian Games Japan men's basketball team roster
Kit
Manufacturer
2015: Under Armour [5]
Sponsor
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
- ^ "FIBA Ranking for Men". Fiba.Com. 3 October 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
- ^ http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/FIBA/fibaStru/nfLeag/nfProf.asp?nationalFederationNumber=309
- ^ http://beirut2010.fibaasia.net/Team_Details.aspx?id=27
- ^ "Japan hoops set to hire Hasegawa". The Japan Times. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
- ^ a b 2015 FIBA Asia Championship - Japan, FIBA.com, Retrieved 27 September 2015.