MANILA (Enzo Flojo's Asia on my Mind) - Japan enjoyed a healthy dose of success in 2015, and though 2016 was not as glittery, they still reaped their fair share of glory on the international basketball scene. This augurs well for the national team, also known as the Akatsuki Five, as they chart a path to even more glory in 2017, but the recent departure of coach Kenji Hasegawa also means this new chapter in Japanese basketball starts practically from scratch.

Japan surprised a lot of Asian basketball observers when they finished fourth overall in the FIBA Asia Championship 2015 despite the fact they did not have a naturalized player in their employ. The 1-2 punch of Joji Takeuchi and Makoto Hiejima stepped up for the Akatsuki Five last year, leading the squad to big wins over the likes of India, Palestine, Hong Kong and Qatar. They finished with 5 wins out of 9 games, narrowly missing a podium finish, but it was good enough to put them in their first world-level tournament since hosting the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2006.

Coach Hasegawa's wards travelled to Belgrade several months ago, and they played Euro teams Latvia and the Czech Republic in Group B of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) 2016 leg in Serbia. There, Japan came face-to-face with a much higher quality of basketball, losing to the Latvians, 88-48, and then failing to overcome a slow start to also fall short against the Czechs, 87-71. Both were stinging losses for Japan, but at least the experience afforded them new lessons to make them an even more dangerous foe in the years to come.

Five of the players who played in the OQT (Naoto Tsuji, Makoto Hiejima, Atsuya Ota, Ryoma Hashimoto and Takatoshi Furukawa) then returned to action a couple of months later in the FIBA Asia Challenge 2016. They were joined by a few up-and-comers (Takanobu Nishikawa, Yuma Fujii, Yuya Nagayoshi and Tenketsu Harimoto), old hands (Yuki Mitsuhara and Ryusei Shinoyama) and a new naturalized player (Ira Brown). Despite their youth, Japan impressed in this competition, winning four of their eight games and just narrowly missing finishing among the top five.

Brown was a revelation in that tournament, leading Japan in rebounding, steals and overall efficiency. At only 1.93m, he is undersized as a power forward, but his quickness and upper body strength served him really well. It’s not far-fetched to see him as a possible major piece for Japan in 2017 as the Akatsuki Five gear up for bigger battles. Just imagining a frontline composed of Brown, the Takeuchi twins, Yuta Watanabe and Rui Hachimura will already make a lot of Japanese fans shake with excitement.

Japan's U18 team also made big waves this year, placing second in the FIBA Asia U18 Championship 2016, which was held in Tehran, Iran. After a disappointing opening day loss to East Asia rivals Korea, Japan went on a tear, winning five of their next six games to barge into the Final against home team Iran, which eventually pocketed the crown. A couple of noteworthy players rose to be the cream of Japan’s U18 unit in that tournament: Tensho Sugimoto, Keisuke Masuda and Yudai Nishida. Look for those three to possibly become candidates to move up to the senior team as early as 2017 as well.

2016 may not have been as stellar as 2015 for Japan, but it was still a year on which the Akatsuki Five can look back with pride. Their commendable performances should boost their confidence as they strive to make an even bigger dent in 2017 - both in the FIBA Asia Cup and the FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifiers as part of the New Competition System.

Enzo Flojo

FIBA

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