The other day, the 14 members of Japan's national team for the Men's Volleyball Asian Championship, which begins this weekend, were announced.
https://www.jva.or.jp/index.php/international/2021/asianchampionship_men/member
The members are:
2. Onodera Futoshi MB/ 25/ 201/ 346 JT Thunders Hiroshima
3 Naonobu Fujii S/ 29/ 183/ 312 Toray Roses
4. Issei Otake OP/ 25/ 201/ 345 Panasonic Panthers
5. Tatsunori Otsuka OH/ 20/ 194/ 338 Waseda University
6 Akira Yamauchi MB/ 27/ 204/ 350 Panasonic Panthers
7 Kenta Takanashi OH/ 24/ 189/ 337 Wolf Dogs Nagoya
9 Taichi Fukuyama MB/ 27/ 191/ 335 JTEKT Stings
12 Ai Takahashi OH/ 19/ 188/ 343 Nippon Sport Science University
13 Maki Oya S/ 26/ 178/ 320 Suntory Sunbirds
14 Yuki Ishikawa (C) OH/ 25/ 191/ 351 Power Valley Milano (Italy)
15 Li Bo MB/ 30/ 193/ 344 Toray Arrows
17 Tomohiro Ogawa S/ 24/ 176/ 305 Wolf Dogs Nagoya
19 Kento Miyaura OP/ 22/ 189/ 340 JTEKT Stings
20 Tomohiro Yamamoto L/ 26/ 171/ 301 Sakai Blazers
There are 14 registered members for the Asian Championships, which means two more slots than the 12 for the Tokyo Olympics. Compared to the members for the Tokyo Olympics, Shimizu, Nishida, and Sekita are out, and Otake, Fukuyama, Oya, Ogawa, and Miyaura are newly in.
(＾ω＾)・・・
I knew about Sekita, but Nishida isn't there either?
It is true that Nishida, like Sekita, knew that next season would be his first overseas club, but while Sekita knew from his SNS posts that he would not be participating in the Asian Championships even before the members were announced, Nishida made a surprise announcement here. Fortunately, from Nishida's SNS posts after the members were announced, we know that he is not absent due to injury, but in order to join the Italian team sooner.
As I'm sure you all know, I will not be participating in this year's Asian Championships.
I apologize to everyone who was looking forward to playing at the Asian Championships.
I will be traveling to Italy soon to join the team.
I will do my best to quickly get used to the team in a new location!
We would be happy if you could continue to support us! pic.twitter.com/N542Hodfwj— Yutaka Nishida (@volleyball1301) September 4, 2021
This means that it was probably decided that Nishida would not participate in the Asian Championships well before the members were announced. To delay this announcement until one week before the opening... There must have been many people who bought tickets to the Asian Championships just to see Nishida. Some people may have taken time off work just to see Nishida and bought a super seat that cost 15,000 yen plus travel and accommodation.
They are also featured prominently in the main visual for the Asian Championships. I wonder if it's okay to use them as the main visual when two of the six people featured won't even participate lol. Either way, the volleyball association continues to receive criticism from fans for not taking the fans' perspective into account.
※postscript
According to the interview with Coach Nakagauchi below, Nishida was left out of the Asian Championship team in order to rest.
https://vbm.link/59369/
So that was the reason after all. But still, I think the timing was too late.
I was also curious about the live streaming of the Asian Championships. I'm very grateful that they're doing live streaming, especially since there's almost no terrestrial or BS TV broadcasting, but I'm wondering about the price. 1,500 yen per game, 7,000 yen for all 7 games. Well, some people may think that's not so expensive, but the European Championships currently being held in Europe, next door to Asia, costs 4.99 euros (about 650 yen) for all men's games. The Asian Championships costs 7,000 yen for 7 games only against Japan, while the European Championships costs 650 yen for over 70 games.
It's true that the European Championships broadcast doesn't have live commentary, whereas the Japanese broadcast has guest commentators and other things, which I think costs more for labor, but even so, I wonder what the difference is. Personally, I would have liked the Asian Championships to be broadcast live for less than 1,000 yen for all matches, including those from overseas, so they don't have to spend money on guests. There are two reasons for this.
One reason is to keep new fans coming to the Tokyo Olympics. I think that many people became new fans because of the men's team's performance at the Tokyo Olympics. However, that fan base was only acquired because of free TV broadcasts, and I think it would be a high hurdle to suddenly have to pay 1,500 or 7,000 yen after that. I think it is very important that they continue to watch the Asian Championships, as this will be the turning point between becoming a regular fan and a temporary fan.
Also, for the volleyball world, it is very important to increase the number of players, in other words, to increase the number of children who take up volleyball. If the price is affordable for children with their pocket money, I think it will help retain young fans and lead to an increase in the number of volleyball players.
The second reason is that it will be possible to target overseas markets. Volleyball is a popular sport not only in Japan but also in other Asian countries such as Iran, Thailand, and Indonesia. In fact, Thai was quite prevalent in the comments section of the ongoing European Championships. During the Tokyo Olympics, the most popular sport in Japanese tweets was "baseball/softball," but the most popular sport in the world was "volleyball."
https://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/spv/2108/10/news093.html
I think that making the world a market, even if it means lowering prices to suit developing countries, will increase profits and the number of fans.
So, I've written a lot of critical things up to this point. It's a shame that I won't be able to see Nishida and Sekita at the venue, but I'm still looking forward to the Asian Championships.
I'm especially looking forward to seeing how the newly called-up opposite player Miyaura plays! I hope he'll be in the starting lineup.
Also, the young athletes at the Tokyo Olympics have changed their uniform numbers. Otsuka has taken over the number 5 from his senior at Rakunan, Fukuzawa, and his senior at Waseda, Miyaura, has taken over the number 19 from Otsuka. Takahashi Ai's uniform numbers have also been reversed. When the uniform numbers change, it really feels like a new team is on the move! If Nishida had been there, I wonder if he would have taken over Shimizu's number 1...
Anyway, I hope they keep up the momentum from the Tokyo Olympics! Go Ryujin Nippon!!!
https://www.jva.or.jp/index.php/international/2021/asianchampionship_men/outline
Photo: FIVB
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