is a Japanese

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

player. He plays as No. 8, currently for

Toyota Jido Shokki Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi (also called Toyota Jido Shokki as distinct from Toyota, which was renamed Toyota Verblitz) is a Japanese rugby team owned by Toyota Industries. They were promoted to Japan's top-flight league Top League for ...

. He graduated from

Meiji University , abbreviated as Meiji (明治) or Meidai (明大'')'', is a private research university located in Chiyoda City, the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1881 as Meiji Law School (明治法律学校, ''Meiji Hōritsu Gakkō'') by three Meij ...

and used to play for Suntory Sungoliath before he went to play professional rugby in France for about one season. He's a regular at

Japan national rugby union team The Japan national rugby union team, often known as the Cherry Blossoms, Sakura, and more recently The Brave Blossoms (''ブレイブ・ブロッサムズ - Bureibu burossamuzu'') is traditionally the strongest rugby union power in Asia and has ...

, having played at the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

finals. He played at full back (No. 15) for the first time for the Steelers versus Suntory in a game on Christmas Day 2004. He married former Olympic gold medalist swimmer

Kyoko Iwasaki is a Japanese swimming coach and retired Olympic swimmer from Numazu, Shizuoka. She won the gold medal in the 200 metres breaststroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeast ...

References

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Yuya Saito
1977 births Living people Japanese rugby union players Rugby union number eights Japan international rugby union players Asian Games medalists in rugby union Rugby union players at the 2002 Asian Games Tokyo Sungoliath players Kobelco Kobe Steelers players Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games 2003 Rugby World Cup players Rugby union players from Tokyo Meiji University alumni {{Japan-rugbyunion-bio-stub