The 2025 Women's Volleyball World Championship will finally begin today, Friday, August 22nd.
This year's Japanese national team has lost Sarina Koga, who has been the core of the team since last year, but the new team has started under the leadership of Akbaş, the first foreign coach in the team's history.
In this year's Nations League, which served as a warm-up for the World Volleyball Championship, the team won one match after another thanks to their characteristically solid defense, as well as their powerful serves and sharp attacks led by three pillars: Ishikawa Mayu, Sato Yoshino, and Wada Yukiko.
Although we ultimately came in fourth place, just one step away from winning a medal, the tournament gave us a strong sense of our potential to win a medal at the World Volleyball Championships.
Personally, I believe there is a very good chance that the Japanese women's national volleyball team will win a medal at the World Volleyball Championships.
This is because we are very fortunate with the matchups.
What this means is that at the World Volleyball Championships, Japan will not face the four teams that it lost to in this year's Nations League (Italy, China, Brazil, and Poland) until the final (or third-place match).
Let me explain in more detail.
First up in Qualifying Pool H will be Serbia, ranked 9th in the world, Ukraine, ranked 16th, and Cameroon, ranked 44th. Japan, ranked 5th in the world, is the highest ranked team in the pool.
We should be able to easily beat our first match against Cameroon. Our next opponent is Ukraine, who won this year's Europa Golden League and have qualified for next year's Nations League, so they're a team on a roll, and I don't think we'll have any problems against them either.
However, the match against Serbia may be a tough one. Japan won comfortably 3-0 in the Nations League, but with the return of Boskovic, who is said to be one of the world's top attackers at the World Volleyball Championship, it is expected to be a tough match.
However, even if we lose to Serbia here, we will still be able to advance through the pool qualifiers by finishing second or higher, so there will be no problem in advancing through the qualifiers.
And in the first match of the tournament, we will face the team that advanced from Pool A. I think we will probably face either Thailand, the Netherlands, or Sweden.
I think Japan can beat any team in its current state, but we would like to avoid playing against Thailand, who pushed us to a full set in the Nations League and will likely receive huge cheers from the crowd.
And there is a high possibility that we will face Serbia again in the quarterfinals. I think this will be a major turning point in this tournament. We want to win this at all costs.
If they win there and advance to the semi-finals, they will face the teams that advanced from Pools D and E. Turkey is the favorite here, followed by the United States.
Japan beat Turkey in a full set in the quarterfinals of the Nations League, so I think they have a good matchup. Also, while they haven't played against the USA yet this year, I have the impression that Japan has performed better against them this year.
If they win the semi-finals and advance to the final, they will finally face a team from Pools B, C, F, or G, that is, one of the four teams that lost in the Nations League (Italy, China, Brazil, or Poland) (it is likely that Italy will make it to the final).
I've explained this at length, but what it comes down to is that Japan won't be playing against teams that they have a hard time with until the final or the third-place match. This is a huge opportunity. You could even say it's a huge, huge opportunity.
(On the other hand, it's a bit sad that the world's top four teams are all concentrated in one mountain, haha.)
In any case, given the draws at this year's World Volleyball Championships, there is a very good chance that Japan will win at least a silver medal and advance to the finals.
The decisive battle will be the quarter-final against Serbia (provisional team) on Wednesday, September 3rd! Go Japan!!
The match will be broadcast on TV as well as streamed on U-NEXT and VBTV.
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Photo: Volleyball World
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