Women
Over the past decade the Japanese women’s team has been making inroads on the international hockey scene and will be looking to upset the FIH World Rankings in The Hague, something which they did on a number of occasions during 2013.
Their most notable performance last year came when they defeated the higher-ranked Korea in the final of the 2013 Asia Cup, a superb result which secured a place at the Rabobank Hockey World Cup for the “Cherry Blossoms”.
Their first foray into the Olympics in 2004 earned them an eighth place finish, and they have qualified for all subsequent Games. The team has a longer history in the World Cup; they came sixth in the 1978 World Cup and seventh in 1981.
This was followed by a barren spell with only one appearance in 1990, when they finished 11th. Since 2002, Japan has appeared in every World Cup, finishing in tenth, fifth and eleventh place.
Best World Cup results:
Japan were 5th in 2006 (Madrid) and have taken part in 10 previous World Cups.
FIH World Ranking:
9th
Team
| 1 Ryoko Oie | 2 Shiho Sakai |
| 3 Keiko Manabe | 4 Kana Nomura |
| 5 Miyuki Nakagawa | 6 Akiko Ota |
| 7 Shiho Otsuka | 8 Mayumi Ono |
| 9 Shihori Oikawa | 10 Mazuki Arai |
| 11 Akane Shibata | 15 Ayaka Nishimura |
| 16 Yurri Nagai | 17 Hazuki Nagai |
| 18 Yuka Yoshikawa | 20 Yoshino Kasahara |
| 22 Hazuki Yuda | 23 Shoko Kanefuji |
Staff
Head Coach – Seung Jin Yoo
Assistant Coach – Seonmi Park
Team Manager – Shino Kirii
Stand-In Manager – Natsuki Maeda
Physiotherapist – Atsushi Kawamura