Lausanne, Switzerland, May 24, 2016 – Since women’s volleyball made its Olympic debut in 1964, Japan have failed to appear in the Olympic volleyball tournament on only two occasions: 1980 and 2000.
Rio de Janeiro will see the Japan women’s team in the Olympic Games for the 12th time following their success in the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Tokyo in May.
Nothing can beat the impact Japan had in the very first women’s Olympic volleyball tournament in Tokyo in 1964 when 80 per cent of the country watched the home stars score a 3-0 victory over the Soviet Union to take gold.
Both sides had impressive records going into the final. The Soviets hadn’t dropped a set in their four matches, while Japan had dropped just one, and that was after coach Hirofumi Daimatsu had taken off some of his best players against Poland to confuse watching Soviet scouts.
Ten members of the Japan team worked at the same spinning mill near Osaka, along with Daimatsu who ruled the squad with an iron fist. His training techniques bordered on the extreme. Players were taunted and forced to train almost every day of the year, but Daimatsu also created new tactics that have survived to this day.
After the Olympic Games were over, the team’s captain, Masae Kasai, met the Prime Minister. She bemoaned the fact that her strict training schedule prevented her from finding a husband. The PM took note, arranged a date with a man named Kazuo Nakamura, and the two went on to get married.
Japan’s fairy tale would continue but only after silver medals in 1968 and 1972.
The 1968 tournament was a round-robin competition in which the Soviet Union won all seven of their matches, including the final one against Japan, which went to four sets. Things were even closer in Munich four years later when a different format once again saw the Soviet Union taking on Japan for the gold medal. While Japan took two big sets 15-4 and 15-9, the Soviets won the first, third and fifth sets all by a score of 15-11.
Revenge would have to wait for the Japanese, but it came four years later in Montreal. The semifinal consisted of an eastern Europe tie (Soviet Union v Hungary) and an east Asia matchup (Japan v Korea). The Soviets and the Japanese both won 3-0 to set up yet another showdown. This time the Japanese were ready for the two-time champions and thrashed them 15-7, 15-8, 15-2.
Japan sat out the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow – the Soviets won, of course – and the final of the 1984 tournament was between China and the United States. Japan defeated Peru for the bronze medal.
And that was it for 28 years, Japan finished fourth in Seoul in 1988 and fifth on three other occasions, but they couldn’t match their superb history and didn’t even qualify for Sydney in 2000.
But in London 2012, Japan squeezed into the knockout rounds after finishing third in their qualifying group before edging China 3-2 in the Quarterfinals. After being well beaten by Brazil in the semifinals, Masayoshi Manabe’s team overcame archrivals Korea 3-0 to end their medal drought with a bronze.