BEIRUT (Lebanon) - The Akatsuki Japan women’s team ended up as silver medalists at the Tokyo Olympics.

The fan favorites Samurai Blue team overcame the odds to make it to the Round of 16 as the top team in their Group with wins over Spain and Germany at the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

More recently, the Samurai Japan won their third World Baseball Classic (WBC) title in an exciting clash against defending champions USA in the first-place game.

Japan have been drawing the attention of fans on the global stage in so many different sports because of how well they’ve been playing and the spirit that they’ve been putting on display at these competitions. Next up in line might be the men’s basketball team who will be playing at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 later this year in the flagship event hosted in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan.

Here are 5 reasons why Akatsuki Japan can turn heads at the global meet from 25 August to 10 September:

Don't forget to vote for what you think the biggest reason Akatsuki Japan can succeed will be!

5-Generational Talents

From Rui Machida of the women’s basketball team to Shohei Ohtani of Samurai Japan to Kaoru Mitoma and Takuma Asano of Samurai Blue, the representative national teams of Japan had some rare talents on the court/field/pitch.

Whether it was Machida breaking the all-time Olympics assists record or Ohtani becoming the first player ever to be named to the all-WBC team in two different positions, it was also clear that they were not your typical superstar. These were talents that only graze a national team program every once in a while.

The Akatsuki Japan men’s team already has that locked down.

Rui Hachimura and Yuta Watanabe aren’t the first Japan national team players to have ever played in the NBA (those honors go to Yuta Tabuse, JR Sakuragi, and Nick Fazekas with Tabuse being the only Japanese-born player), they’ve far surpassed what their predecessors have accomplished.

Watanabe is in his fifth season in the league while Hachimura is playing in his fourth. In recent games, both players have already confirmed the most amount of games played in a season.

The two stars of Japan basketball have consistently gone toe-to-toe with some of the best players in the world and the fact that Japan have them both in their talent pool will always give them a good chance to make something magical happen.

(Don’t forget about 27-year-old Yudai Baba who has been knocking on the door of the NBA after playing in the G League, Summer League, and Australia’s NBL over the recent years, too.)

4-Up-and-coming talents

More than just the established stars, another factor towards success at the global stage is having the exciting component of rising stars within the team.

Samurai Blue had 21-year-old Takefusa Kubo, who has been playing in Spain since 2019. For the Samurai Japan on the diamond field, it was the 23-year-old rising prospect Munetake Murakami who hit a walk-off two-run double against Mexico in the Semi-Finals.

Akatsuki Japan are in good shape in this area, too. 21-year-old Yuki Kawamura has been a pleasure to watch ever since making his senior national team debut in the middle of last year and has been a bonafide star in Japan’s B.League as well.

His sharpshooting backcourt partner from the U18 Asian Championship 2018, 22-year-old Keisei Tominaga has been in just as fantastic form, albeit in the USA with the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the NCAA.

Then there are the exciting teenagers like U16 Asian Championship 2022 MVP Yuto Kawashima and U18 Asian Championship 2022 standout Akira Jacobs - both of whom are still not even 19 years of age yet.

3-In-house competition

Outside of the top-tier stars, the entire roster has to be ready for the high level of competition that they will be facing at the global level.

In this regard, Akatsuki Japan will certainly benefit from having their players play in the rising B.League which is quickly becoming one of the best professional leagues in Asia. Not only does the league feature the majority of the best players in the Japan national team pool, the participating teams also field players from other national teams whether it’s the likes of Spain, Australia, and the Philippines among others.

Whether it’s guards like Yuki Togashi, wings like Yudai Nishida, or big men like Soichiro Inoue, they all get the chance to consistently go up against talents that challenge them to be better in each and every game. Akatsuki Japan are definitely hoping that this will help the team when the World Cup games tipoff.

2-Home comfort

Speaking of the World Cup tipoff, another major factor that could help Japan make their mark at the global meet is that they will be playing the Group Phase right in Okinawa.

Even though courtside support was limited at the time, the women’s team’s run through the Tokyo Olympics got more or less a boost of being in Tokyo. At the World Baseball Classic, Japan were dominant in the games that were played in Tokyo, as well. And while the Samurai Blue didn’t play in Japan for the FIFA World Cup, you could constantly see the immense fan support at the stadiums in Doha.

For World Cup 2023, Akatsuki Japan fans will be ready to pack the seats at the Okinawa Arena and that could be a spark from the stands that can energize them toward a surprising result.

1-Not the first time

With all of that said and, it wouldn’t be the first time that the men’s national team of Japan have been put in the spotlight of the basketball world and that’s one of the biggest reasons to believe why they can do it again at the World Cup this year.

It’s only been 5 years since Japan took on Australia in China at the World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers in what would be one of the biggest upsets of the competition. The Boomers were undefeated in FIBA Asia competitions at that point before suffering a 79-78 loss at the hands of Japan as Hachimura and Fazekas made their debuts for the senior national team.

Moreover, the head coach who led Aktaksuki Japan women’s team to a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics was also none other than the current men’s national team head coach Tom Hovasse.

It’s needless to say that this national team program already knows a thing or two about making a lot of noise on the global stage… and that’s what they will be hoping to do at the upcoming World Cup.

What do you think will be the biggest factor in Japan having success at the World Cup this year?

FIBA