Women’s Daido Life SV.League Team Previews - Part 1

One of the most traditional and historically competitive women's volleyball national leagues on the planet, the Japanese Daido Life SV.League will have the start of the second season since the massive revamp it went through in just a few days.

After a very successful 2024-2025 season, the tournament is set to showcase again most of the country's national team players, as well as an increased number of international stars, who have moved to Japan in the offseason as a result of the significant investment boost seen in the league. As was the case last season, VBTV will again stream every match of the 2025-2025 Daido Life SV.League live.

• Watch the Women’s Daido Life SV.League live on VBTV

Reuniting 14 teams, the regular season starts on Friday, October 10, and will have each of them playing 44 matches until April 5. The eight best teams will advance to the playoffs, but, unlike most other leagues, the first criterion to determine teams' positioning in the standings is winning rate (total number of wins divided by total number of matches played). The quarterfinals, semifinals and Finals will all be played in best-of-three series.

With the start of the season quickly approaching, it's time to know more about the 14 title contenders - this time, we'll cover the first seven:

Aranmare Yamagata

Aranmare ranked 13th last season, with a campaign of five victories and 39 losses. Completing ten years as the team's head coach, former player Tsutomu Kitahara should have better pieces to lead the team to a better campaign in 2025-2026 as Aranmate signed Thai national team outside hitter Ajcharaporn Kongyot and middle blocker Wimonrat Thanapan to join compatriot and outside hitter Donphon Sinpho, who returns for her second season in Yamagata. The three will be tasked with leading the team's group of local players, which has setter Megumi Tamura, outside hitter Shuna Omoto and libero Yuri Kimura as the most experienced names.

Astemo Rivale Ibaraki

Astemo Rivale made it to the playoffs last season, earning 23 wins and 21 losses during the regular season to advance in eighth place, but couldn't make it past the quarterfinals. The team starts the season with a new coach after the hiring of Noboru Aihara, who coached Japanese youth national teams in many different age groups and was an assistant with the senior squad during the Tokyo Olympics. Returning after a successful first season, USA national team middle blocker Brionne Butler is the most renowned player in the squad - fellow American and outside hitter Mackenzie May is also back after first joining in 2024-2025. Among the Japanese players, middle blocker Aya Watanabe, a silver medalist at the 2024 Volleyball Nations League, and outside hitter Miwako Osanai, a 2019 Asian champion, are the ones with the most international experience.

Denso Airybees

Denso had the fourth-best campaign of the regular season in 2024-2025 with 29 wins and 15 losses and overcame the quarterfinals, but were stopped in the semifinals. Returning head coach Takeshi Tsuji will be able to count on the team's leading scorer from 2024-2025 as Olympic medalist opposite Rosamaria Montibeller re-signed, and even saw Denso add another Brazilian at the position, signing Sabrina Machado from the Polish League. Another new face in 2025-2026, Filipino middle blocker Sachi Minowa is the third international player in the squad. Libero Haruna Kawabata, outside hitter Minami Nakamoto and setter Nonoka Yamazaki are the most popular Japanese players on the team.

Gunma Green Wings

Gunma sat at the bottom of the standings in 2024-2025, securing five wins and 39 losses to rank 14th. The team maintained head coach Masayasu Sakamoto and was very active in the market, signing a strong trio of international players to lead the squad in Polish outside hitter Olivia Różański, Bulgarian middle blocker Nasya Dimitrova and Vietnamese outside hitter Trần Thị Thanh Thúy. They should form the core of the team alongside setter Haruka Yamashita, opposite Momoko Niida and middle blocker Hinano Michishita.

KUROBE Aqua Fairies Toyama

The Aqua Fairies obtained 15 victories and 29 losses in the regular season in 2024-2025 and missed the playoffs, ending up in 12th place. Led by Gen Kawakita, who has vast experience as an assistant, having worked with both the Japanese and the USA national teams and Turkish giants VakifBank, the club kept their two international players from last season, bringing back both German national team outside hitter Lena Stigrot and Dutch opposite Iris Scholten. Setter Hana Okuhara was their main signing for the season and should join fellow Japanese Anri Nakamura (middle blocker), Maiko Yoda (libero) and Rimi Kaneda (outside hitter) in the team's starting lineup.

NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki

Nine-time Japanese champions (1987-1988, 1996-1997, 1999-2000, 2002-2003, 2004-2005, 2014-2015, 2016-2017, 2022-2023, 2023-2024), the Red Rockets finished second in the regular season last year with 30 wins and 14 losses and advanced all the way to the Finals, but lost. They enter 2025-2026 with a new coach in Kodai Nakaya and signed Italian opposite Sylvia Nwakalor and American outside hitter Giovanna Day to fill their international spots. The Red Rockets have one of the strongest groups of Japanese players in the entire league, boasting many national team players, such as setter Tsukasa Nakagawa, opposite Yukiko Wada, outside hitter Yoshino Sato and middle blocker Nichika Yamada.

Okayama Seagulls

After registering 19 wins and 25 losses in the regular season, the Seagulls finished 11th in the 2024-2025 Daido Life SV.League. The team has one of the longest-tenured head coaches in international volleyball in Akiyoshi Kawamoto, who has been in charge since the 1993-1994 season. Their roster is almost fully formed by Japanese players, with Vietnamese middle blocker Trần Thị Bích Thủy, one of the team's signings for the 2025-2026 season, being the only exception. The Seagulls also have a very young squad, which has 27-year-olds Ami Yamashiro (opposite) and Akiho Kurisu (middle blocker) and 26-year-old Ayaka Taguchi (middle blocker) as their most veteran players.

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