Japan national rugby sevens team

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This article is about the men's team. For the women's team, see Japan women's national rugby sevens team.
Japan Sevens
UnionJapan Rugby Football Union
Coach(es)
Captain(s)Yusaku Kuwazuru
Team kit
World Cup Sevens
Appearances7 (First in 1993)
Best result13th (1993)

The Japan national rugby sevens team participates in competitions such as the World Rugby Sevens Series and the Rugby World Cup Sevens.

Tournament history[]

Summer Olympic Games[]

Rugby World Cup Sevens[]

World Cup record
Year Round Position Pld W L D
Scotland 1993 Bowl Winner 13th 7 4 3 0
Hong Kong 1997 Bowl Finalist 17th 7 2 5 0
Argentina 2001 Plate Quarterfinalist 13th 6 3 3 0
Hong Kong 2005 Plate Quarterfinalist 13th 6 3 3 0
United Arab Emirates 2009 Bowl Quarterfinalist 21st 4 0 4 0
Russia 2013 Bowl Finalist 18th 6 2 3 1
United States 2018 Challenge Trophy Quarterfinalist 15th 4 2 2 0
Total 0 Titles 6/6 40 16 24 1

Asian Games[]

Asian Games record
Year Round Position Pld W L D
Thailand 1998 Runner-Up 2nd 4 3 1 0
South Korea 2002 Semifinalst 4th 5 2 3 0
Qatar 2006 Winners 1st 4 4 0 0
China 2010 Winners 1st 7 7 0 0
South Korea 2014 Winners 1st 6 6 0 0
Indonesia 2018 Runner-Up 2nd 6 5 1 0
Total 3 Titles 6/6 32 27 5 0

Hong Kong Sevens[]

Japan won the Plate match at the 1980 and 1999 Hong Kong Sevens.

In the 2007 Hong Kong Sevens, Japan reached Bowl semi-finals (19th place), where they lost against France; previously they had beaten Asian rivals China and Chinese Taipei. In 2008, they lost all four matches versus South Africa, Argentina, Russia and Hong Kong.

Japan won in 2009 against China and Sri Lanka, after which they lost the Bowl semi-finals versus Portugal. In 2010 they beat Hong Kong but were defeated by Scotland in Bowl quarter-finals, so they ended 13th.

The team won in 2011 against China, Scotland and the United States, then were beaten by Canada in the Bowl final to end 9th.

In the 2012 World Series qualifier at Hong Kong, Japan were defeated by Portugal and Russia and won against Guyana in the group phase. The team won against Hong Kong in quarter-finals, but was defeated by Spain in semi-finals and Portugal in the third place match. so they failed to qualify for the World Series.

In the 2013 World Series pre-qualifier at Hong Kong, the team won all group phase matches against Brazil, Georgia and Jamaica. However, Georgia beat them in quarter-finals.

In the 2014 World Series qualifier at Hong Kong, Japan won the three group phase matches against Uruguay, Cook Islands and Trinidad and Tobago. Later they beat Tunisia, Russia and Italy to claim World Series core status for 2014/15.

Sevens World Series[]

Japan won the Plate final match (5th place) at the 2000 Japan Sevens, scoring 8 points for the 1999–2000 World Sevens Series. The team lost the Bowl final match to end 10th in the 2002 Australia Sevens and 2002 Singapore Sevens.

In the 2012 USA Sevens they reached Bowl semifinals (11th place). In the 2014 Japan Sevens they repeated that result.

Japan became a core team for the 2014–15 Sevens World Series. As hosts of the 2015 Japan Sevens, they won over Samoa, tied Argentina and lost to France to advance to Cup quarter-finals. They were defeated by Fiji and then Scotland, therefore resulting 7th in the tournament. However, they resulted last in seven out of ten events and finished 15th, therefore the team lost its core team status for 2015–16.

At the 2016 Wellington Sevens, Japan defeated France to reach Bowl semi-finals, where they lost to Scotland, therefore claiming 11th place. The team advanced to Cup quarter-finals of the 2016 USA Sevens after winning over Scotland and drawing versus England. They lost to Fiji and defeated Kenya to reach the Plate final, where they fell to New Zealand to clinch 6th place.

Team[]

Current squad[]

For a complete list of players in the current World Series, see 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series squads § Japan.

Former squads[]

Japan team to the 2016 Summer Olympics

The following is the Japan roster in the men's rugby sevens tournament of the 2016 Summer Olympics.[1]

Head coach:

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Events Points Union
1 BK Lomano Lemeki (1989-01-20)20 January 1989 (aged 27) 14 221 Japan Honda Heat
2 FW Lote Tuqiri (1987-11-12)12 November 1987 (aged 28) 20 125 Japan Kubota Spears
3 FW Yoshitaka Tokunaga (1992-04-10)10 April 1992 (aged 24) 3 5 Japan Toshiba Brave Lupus
4 FW Yusaku Kuwazuru (c) (1985-10-23)23 October 1985 (aged 30) 31 45 Japan Coca-Cola Red Sparks
5 FW Kameli Soejima (1983-06-01)1 June 1983 (aged 33) 8 92 Japan
6 FW Masakatsu Hikosaka (1991-01-18)18 January 1991 (aged 25) 12 35 Japan Toyota Verblitz
7 BK Katsuyuki Sakai (1988-09-07)7 September 1988 (aged 27) 23 424 Japan Toyota Industries Shuttles
8 BK Kazushi Hano (1991-06-21)21 June 1991 (aged 25) 13 45 Japan NTT Communications Shining Arcs
9 BK Shohei Toyoshima (1989-01-09)9 January 1989 (aged 27) 11 105 Japan Toshiba Brave Lupus
10 BK Teruya Goto (1991-12-18)18 December 1991 (aged 24) 4 15 Japan NEC Green Rockets
11 BK Kenki Fukuoka (1992-09-07)7 September 1992 (aged 23) 2 10 Japan Panasonic Wild Knights
12 BK Kazuhiro Goya (1993-04-21)21 April 1993 (aged 23) 12 53 Japan Kubota Spears
Japan team to the 2014 Hong Kong Sevens

Squad to 2014 Hong Kong Sevens.[2]
  • Yusaku Kuwazuru
  • Lomano Lemeki
  • Lote Tuqiri
  • Pohiva Lotoahea
  • Dai Ozawa
  • Katsuyuki Sakai
  • Tomoki Kitagawa
  • Jamie Henry
  • Josefa Lilidamu
  • Kosuke Hashino
  • Kenki Fukuoka
  • Yoshikazu Fujita

Coaches[]

  • Wataru Murata - head coach from February 28, 2008
  • Kensuke Iwabuchi - coach from February 28, 2008

See also[]

  • World Sevens Series
  • Rugby World Cup Sevens
  • Japan national rugby union team

References[]

  1. ^ "Japan 7s – Olympic Games Men's Sevens". World Rugby. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  2. ^ "usurped title". Archived from the original on March 29, 2014. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

External links[]

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