Expanded men’s SV.League’s new season in Japan to start on Saturday

A week after the women’s season in Japan got underway, it is the men’s turn to get their new Daido Life SV.League season started. The main novelty is that the league has expanded from 10 to 12 participating teams, with two newcomers – Fragolad Kagoshima and Hokkaido Yellow Stars – joining the race for national honors. The first competition weekend will consist of only one double header, with Tokyo Great Bears entertaining Hokkaido Yellow Stars at the iconic Ariake Coliseum at 14:05 local time (05:05 UTC) on October 17 and 18. As in the previous two seasons, all matches will be streamed live and on demand on VBTV.

• Watch Japan’s SV.League on VBTV

The new format

The 2026-2027 Japanese men’s Daido Life SV.League season’s new format with more teams will not affect the number of matches each squad plays during the regular season, as the 12 participants will engage in a quadruple round robin competition, with home-and-away double headers, which means 44 games per team (22 at home and 22 on the road). The ranking criteria remain the same as before, with the win-loss ratios and the points earned taken into consideration first and second.

The format of the playoffs also remains unchanged. The regular season winners and runners-up will advance straight to the best-of-three semifinals to be played at their home venues. The teams standing from third to sixth will move on to the two best-of-three quarterfinal playoffs at the home venues of the third and fourth-placed sides. The dates and the venue of the best-of-three final championship series are yet to be determined.

The teams

In addition to SV.League rookies Fragolad Kagoshima and Hokkaido Yellow Stars, the 10 teams that played in the previous two seasons are set to compete in the 2026-2027 league. However, one of them is entering the new season under a new name. Nagano Tridents are now Shinshu Matsumoto Tridents.

So, the full lineup consists of Fragolad Kagoshima, Hiroshima Thunders, Hokkaido Yellow Stars, JTEKT Stings Aichi, Osaka Bluteon, Shinshu Matsumoto Tridents, Suntory Sunbirds Osaka, Tokyo Great Bears, Toray Arrows Shizuoka, Voreas Hokkaido and Wolfdogs Nagoya.

2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship runners-up Osaka Bluteon arrive at the new season as the reigning SV.League champions. They finished the 2025-2026 regular season as runners-up, but went on to turn the championship playoff against the then defending champions Suntory Sunbirds Osaka around and take it by 2-1 in wins.

Suntory Sunbirds won the regular season and despite the setback in the final series they left excellent impressions and kept their role among the favorites for the upcoming new season.

Another key team – JTEKT Stings Aichi – finished last season with a couple of bronze-medal results – one in the SV.League and one in Asia’s continental AVC Men’s Champions League.

The stars

As expected, there will be no shortage of world-class international stars competing in the SV.League during the new season.

Defending champions Osaka Bluteon will continue to rely on the magic hands of French setter Antoine Brizard, the sheer spiking and serving power of opposite Yuji Nishida and the stunning agility of libero Tomohiro Yamamoto. Outside hitters Shoma Tomita and Cuba’s Miguel Lopez and middle blockers Larry Evbade-Dan and Akihiro Yamauchi are among the other returning stars, now also joined by Canadian middle Fynnian McCarthy, arriving from Poland.

Silver medalists Suntory Sunbirds have strengthened their roster with as many as four new foreign additions – Tunisian opposite Wassim Ben Tara, a reigning world, European and Italian champion with Sir Perugia, Argentinean outside Luciano Palonsky, Romanian outside Daniel Chitigoi and Taiwanese middle Tsai Pei-Chang – receiving a stellar welcome from returning playmaker Masahiro Sekita, middle blocker Taishi Onodera and Russian outside Egor Kliuka.

Middle blocker Judson Nunes is the new Brazilian addition to bronze medalists JTEKT Stings Aichi’s squad. He is set to play alongside Japanese middle Kentaro Takahashi, American outside Torey DeFalco and French opposite Stephen Boyer, among others.

Wolfdogs Nagoya have put together a strong roster, featuring opposite Kento Miyaura, setter Hideomi Fukatsu, Polish middle Norbert Huber and incoming transfers like French libero Jenia Grebennikov, German middle Anton Brehme and Czech outside Donovan Dzavoronok.

Mighty Iranian opposite Amin Esmaeilnezhad has joined Hiroshima Thunders. Tokyo Great Bears will once again be starring Polish opposite Bartosz Kurek, Slovenian middle Jan Kozamernik and outside hitters Masahiro Yanagida and Argentina’s Luciano Vicentin. Spanish outside Jordi Ramon and Brazilian opposite Chizoba Neves will play side by side with returning Italian striker Tommaso Rinaldi on Nippon Steel Sakai Blazers’ new squad.

Two American internationals are expected to shine in Toray Arrows Shizuoka’s roster, as middle Taylor Averill has now been joined by compatriot opposite Gabriel Garcia. Experienced American middle David Smith is the new star of Shinshu Matsumoto Tridents, while Danish scoring machine Ulrik Dahl has transferred to Voreas Hokkaido.

Japanese men’s SV.League: full schedule

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