The second eighthfinal in Bangkok will put Asian rivals Japan and Thailand against one another for a ticket to the last eight of the World Championship. The match on Friday evening starts at 20:30 local time (13:30 UTC).
Well ahead in the overall head-to-head record between the two teams, Japan emerged victorious the last time they met Thailand in a Volleyball Nations League 2025 game in June. However, the two teams put together an exciting five-set battle, which produced a 3-2 (18-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-15, 15-11) reverse sweep Japan’s way. The last time Thailand beat Japan was in a 2023 AVC Asian Championship fixture, also in five sets.
Japan is one of the most decorated nations in the history of the women’s World Championships, with three titles, three silver medals and a bronze, which was their most recent medal from 2010. Despite dealing with some injuries, the Japanese team is still unbeaten at Thailand 2025. It swept their Pool H opener against Cameroon, but had to battle back from two sets down to overcome Ukraine. In the first-place decider, Japan defeated defending champions Serbia in four sets. Outside hitter and captain Mayu Ishikawa was Japan’s most prolific scorer of the pool phase, with 59 points to her name.
For Thailand, this is the seventh World Championship appearance, but they have never made it to the quarterfinals. Their best results were the 13th-place finishes they achieved four times, most recently in 2022. Their home-based Pool A campaign produced a four-set win over Egypt and a straight-set victory over Sweden, before the dramatic pool top decider with the Netherlands, which they lost in the overtime of the tie-breaker to advance to the eighthfinals as pool runners-up. In those games, Thailand’s scorers were led by opposite Pimpichaya Kokram with 62 points combined.
