Coach Blain announces 2024 Japanese national team call-ups

Japanese men’s national team coach Philippe Blain announced a roster of 32 players, including three first-timers, whose services he will rely on for the upcoming 2024 season. Volleyball Nations League 2024 and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are the highlights on Ryujin Nippon’s calendar this year.

The selection includes all 17 of the athletes who represented Japan last season in VNL 2023, when the team celebrated a historic bronze, or at the Olympic qualification tournament, when the team booked their ticket to Paris 2024.

Blain’s list features some next generation players to watch as well. 20-year-old opposite Keihan Takahashi and 19-year-old middle blocker Kento Asano are two of Japan’s rising stars whose performances at the highest level the fans look forward to enjoying this season.

The pre-season preparation starts on April 10 at the Ajinomoto National Training Center in Tokyo. Before the start of the VNL, Ryujin Nippon will have an eight-day training camp in the Netherlands from May 9 to 17.

Japan will open their VNL 2024 campaign with a game against Argentina on May 21. It will be played in Rio de Janeiro, where the team will also meet Serbia, Cuba and Italy. During the second competition week (June 4 – 9), Japan will host a pool in Fukuoka, where they will take on Iran, Germany, Poland and Slovenia. For the last week (June 18 – 23) of the Preliminary Phase, coach Philippe Blain’s squad will travel to Manila for matches against Canada, the Netherlands, France and United States, hoping to secure a spot at the Finals in Lodz from June 27 to 30.

The Olympic Games in Paris will run from July 26 through August 11.

Japan men’s national team full roster (subject to eligibility check to be conducted by the FIVB):

Setters: Akihiro Fukatsu, Issei Maeda, Masahiro Sekita, Masaki Oya, Motoki Eiro, Ryu Yamamoto 
Opposites: Hiroto Nishiyama, Keihan Takahashi, Kento Miyaura, Yuji Nishida 
Outside hitters: Akito Yamazaki, Alain De Armas, Kenta Takanashi, Kenyu Nakamoto, Masato Kai, Ran Takahashi, Shoma Tomita, Tatsunori Otsuka, Yudai Arai, Yuki Ishikawa 
Middle blockers: Akihiro Yamauchi, Cole Watanabe, Go Murayama, Keigo Nishimoto, Kentaro Takahashi, Kento Asano, Larry Evbade-Dan, Taishi Onodera 
Liberos: Kazuyuki Takahashi, Soshi Fujinaka, Tomohiro Ogawa, Tomohiro Yamamoto

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