The Japan women's national rugby union team (, nicknamed Sakura Fifteen) are a national sporting side of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, representing them at

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

. The side first played in 1991.

History

Japan made their international debut at the 1991 Women's Rugby World Cup. Since then, Japan has appeared at three other editions of the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. The team has won the

Asia Rugby Women's Championship The Asia Rugby Championship for women's national fifteen-a-side teams is a rugby union tournament that has been contested since 2006. Organised by Asia Rugby, there are currently two competition divisions. The championship is also the continental ...

in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Japan qualified for the

2021 Rugby World Cup The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the ninth staging of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It was held from 8 October to 12 November 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei, New Zealand. It was originally scheduled to be held in 2021, ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

after a revision of Asia's qualification was made due to the global pandemic. As Asia's highest ranked team they qualified automatically for the tournament. In November 2021, Japan toured Europe and played test matches against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Wales defeated Japan 23–5, the Sakura's scoring their only try in the 77th minute with a missed conversion. Scotland ran in six tries to give the Sakura's their second loss 36–12, at the DAM Health Stadium in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. Ireland down to 14 players pulled off an unlikely win to beat Japan 15–12. Japan toured Australia in 2022, they played and won matches against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, the Australian Barbarians, and

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

Players

Recent Squad

Japan named their final 32-player squad on the 13 September 2022, for the

Previous Squads

Records

Overall

''(Full internationals only)'' ''See

Women's international rugby Women's international rugby union has a history going back to the late 19th century, but it was not until 1982 that the first international fixture (or "test match") involving women's rugby union took place. The match was organised in connection ...

for information about the status of international games and match numbering''

Rugby World Cup

References

External links

Japan RFU Official English pageJapan Times Articles by Rich Freeman
- ''Japan Times'' rugby correspondent until 2005, then at the ''

Daily Yomiuri The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four ...

''
Japan RFU
- in Japanese
Japanese rugby union news from Planet Rugby
{{JapanNationalTeams Asian national women's rugby union teams 1991 establishments in Japan Rugby clubs established in 1991