Japan - Preview

 

Head Coach: Soichiro Sata

 

Key Players: Shinnosuke Tokuda (Right Back), Kei Tanaka (Centre Back)

 

Road to Qualification:  Third place – 2014 Asian Men’s Junior Handball Championship

 

History in Tournament: 1977: DNP, 1979: 19th, 1981: 16th, 1983: DNP, 1985: 11th, 1987-2013: DNP

 

Overview:

After an absence of 30 years, Japan come to Brazil for their first Men’s Junior World Handball Championship since 1985.

 

That tournament – just the fifth edition of the Men’s Junior World Championship – saw Japan lose all four of their group phase games, but the team from Asia managed to win two matches in the bottom half of the competition, against Nigeria and hosts Italy, to finish in 11th place.

 

Three decades of darkness followed and Japan, who had been regular qualifiers up until that point, went off of the international radar in the younger age category.

 

It finally ended in Iran – at the 14th Asian Men’s Junior Handball Championship, Japan took the bronze medal, beating the hosts in the 3/4 play-off.

 

Under the guidance of Head Coach Soichiro Sata, Japan have nothing to lose at Brazil 2015. The squad have been busy with a training camp in Nagoya, a little over 300km west of the capital Tokyo, where they will finish their preparation before flying to Brazil.

 

What a start they have too – they will face hosts Brazil on the opening day in their Group D clash, but the team from Asia will be hoping for some support; Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, with a history of immigration dating back over 100 years.

 

Coach Sata’s provisional 28-man squad is entirely made up of university-based players from nine teams. University of Tsukuba centre back Kei Tanaka and right back Shinnosuke Tokuda have scored 286 goals between them in just 21 international matches each. Tokuda was voted Most Valuable Player at the Asian Men’s Junior Handball Championship whilst left back Abe Ryunosuke, who plays for Kokushikan University, is the most experienced player with 28 international appearances to his name.

 

Group at Brazil 2015:

Group D: Brazil, Germany, Norway, Egypt, Uruguay, Japan

 

Games at Brazil 2015:

All times local

Sunday 19 July: BRA-JPN (18:30)

Tuesday 21 July: JPN-EGY (20:45)

Thursday 23 July: GER-JPN (09:30)

Friday 24 July:        JPN-NOR (20:45)

Sunday 26 July: URU-JPN (09:30)

 

Click here for a full list of all the games at Brazil 2015