The Japan national rugby sevens team participates in competitions such as the

World Rugby Sevens Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...

and the

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport ...

Tournament history

Summer Olympic Games

Rugby World Cup Sevens

Asian Games

Hong Kong Sevens

Japan won the Plate match at the 1980 and 1999

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens () is an rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competition, the Hong Kong Sevens is currently the s ...

. In the

2007 Hong Kong Sevens The 2007 Hong Kong Sevens was a rugby sevens tournament held on 30 March until 1 April 2007 in Hong Kong at the 40,000 capacity Hong Kong Stadium. The event, the fifth leg of the 2006-07 IRB Sevens World Series, was won by Samoa. The Format ...

, Japan reached Bowl semi-finals (19th place), where they lost against France; previously they had beaten Asian rivals China and Chinese Taipei. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, they lost all four matches versus South Africa, Argentina, Russia and Hong Kong. Japan won in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

against China and Sri Lanka, after which they lost the Bowl semi-finals versus Portugal. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

they beat Hong Kong but were defeated by Scotland in Bowl quarter-finals, so they ended 13th. The team won in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

against China, Scotland and the United States, then were beaten by Canada in the Bowl final to end 9th. In the 2012 World Series qualifier at Hong Kong, Japan were defeated by Portugal and Russia and won against Guyana in the group phase. The team won against Hong Kong in quarter-finals, but was defeated by Spain in semi-finals and Portugal in the third place match. so they failed to qualify for the World Series. In the 2013 World Series pre-qualifier at Hong Kong, the team won all group phase matches against Brazil, Georgia and Jamaica. However, Georgia beat them in quarter-finals. In the 2014 World Series qualifier at Hong Kong, Japan won the three group phase matches against Uruguay, Cook Islands and Trinidad and Tobago. Later they beat Tunisia, Russia and Italy to claim World Series core status for 2014/15.

Sevens World Series

Japan won the Plate final match (5th place) at the 2000

Japan Sevens The Japan Sevens, also known as the Tokyo Sevens, is an annual rugby sevens tournament held at the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. It was a part of the Sevens World Series from 2000 to 2001 and from 2012 to 2015. History The fi ...

, scoring 8 points for the

1999–2000 World Sevens Series The 1999–2000 World Sevens Series was the first season of the World Rugby Sevens Series, global circuit for men's national rugby sevens teams, organised by the World Rugby, International Rugby Board (now known as World Rugby). The series ran f ...

. The team lost the Bowl final match to end 10th in the 2002 Australia Sevens and 2002 Singapore Sevens. In the 2012

USA Sevens The USA Sevens is a rugby sevens tournament held annually during March in the United States. The USA Sevens is the largest annual rugby competition in North America, drawing over 60,000 fans, and is broadcast live in the United States by ESPN. ...

they reached Bowl semifinals (11th place). In the 2014

they repeated that result. Japan became a core team for the 2014–15 Sevens World Series. As hosts of the

2015 Japan Sevens The 2015 Japan Sevens was held on 4–5 April 2015. It was the fourth edition of the tournament and the seventh instalment of the 2014–15 Sevens World Series. Format The teams were drawn into four pools of four teams each. Each team played eve ...

, they won over Samoa, tied Argentina and lost to France to advance to Cup quarter-finals. They were defeated by Fiji and then Scotland, therefore resulting 7th in the tournament. However, they resulted last in seven out of ten events and finished 15th, therefore the team lost its core team status for 2015–16. At the

2016 Wellington Sevens The 2016 New Zealand Sevens was the third tournament within the 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series and the seventeenth edition of the Wellington Sevens. It was held over the weekend 30–31 January 2016 at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zeal ...

, Japan defeated France to reach Bowl semi-finals, where they lost to Scotland, therefore claiming 11th place. The team advanced to Cup quarter-finals of the

2016 USA Sevens The 2016 USA Sevens (also sometimes referred to as the 2016 Las Vegas Sevens) is the thirteenth edition of the USA Sevens tournament, and the fifth tournament of the 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was played on 4–6 March 201 ...

after winning over Scotland and drawing versus England. They lost to Fiji and defeated Kenya to reach the Plate final, where they fell to New Zealand to clinch 6th place.

Team

Current squad

Former squads

Coaches

* Wataru Murata - head coach from February 28, 2008 * Kensuke Iwabuchi - coach from February 28, 2008

References

External links

Official websiteWorldRugby profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Japan national rugby sevens team National rugby sevens teams sevens