Japan announce 37-man roster for the 2023 season

A group of 37 players was called up to represent Japan during the 2023 international season, which will begin for the Asians in just about two months, with the Volleyball Nations League.

Second-year head coach Philippe Blain will start working with the group very soon, with the first players set to report for the team’s initial training camp, which will be held in Tokyo, on April 9. The remaining players will join the group after they complete their club season commitments around the world.

All 14 players that helped the country’s national team finish 12th in last year’s FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship will be back with the team this season, including star opposite Yuji Nishida and outside hitter Yuki Ishikawa, who continues as the team captain for a second-straight season.

“Being selected as the captain again gives me a lot of energy,” Ishikawa commented in a video message. “This is a very important year with Olympic qualification going on and we’ll work hard to secure a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympics.”

The highlight of the list was the inclusion of 30-year-old outside hitter Masahiro Yanagida, who hadn’t been called up since the 2019 FIVB World Cup, where the Asians finished fourth. Six players were selected for the first time for the Japanese national team.

Blain’s plan is to split the group into two squads during the season, with the main players competing in the VNL between May and July, the Asian Championships, in August, and the Olympic Qualifier Tournament, between September and October, while the other players would focus on the Asian Games, which be held in September.

The Japanese, who will play a pair of friendly matches against China before their debut in the VNL, are specifically targeting the Olympic Qualifier Tournament they will host, where they will face USA, Slovenia, Serbia, Türkiye, Tunisia, Egypt and Finland for a spot in Paris next year.

“It’s an important year in regards to Olympic qualification,” the coach said. “We got a really tough pool in the Olympic Qualifier Tournament and we also want to remain as the top-ranked Asian team in the FIVB World Rankings.”

Japan will start their 2023 VNL campaign at home, facing Iran, Serbia, Bulgaria and France in Nagoya from June 6-11.

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 on VBTV

Japan men’s national team full roster:

Setters: Akihiro Fukatsu, Masahiro Sekita, Masaki Oya, Motoki Eiro, Ryu Yamamoto, Ryo Shimokawa

Opposites: Yuji Nishida, Kento Miyaura, Hiroto Nishiyama, Keihan Takahashi

Outside hitters: Tatsunori Otsuka, Kenta Takanashi, Shoma Tomita, Ran Takahashi, Yuki Ishikawa, Masahiro Yanagida, Hiroki Ozawa, Kenya Fujinaka, Akito Yamazaki, Masato Kai, Yudai Arai

Middle blockers: Taishi Onodera, Akihiro Yamauchi, Kentaro Takahashi, Go Murayama, Shunichiro Sato, Takahiro Namba, Larry Evbade-Dan, Kento Asano, Hirohito Kashimura, Hiromasa Miwa

Liberos: Tomohiro Ogawa, Satoshi Tsuiki, Tomohiro Yamamoto, Kazuyuki Takahashi, Soshi Fujinaka, Kazuma Sonae

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