Hosts of every edition of the FIVB Men’s World Grand Champions Cup, Japan together with Brazil are the only team to have competed in all six previous editions.

Japan, hosts of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, won a bronze medal at the Tokyo 1964 Games, followed by silver at Mexico 1968 and gold at Munich 1972. Subsequent decades have been less successful. Japan missed three successive Olympic Games before returning to the stage at Beijing 2008 where they failed to win a match. They failed to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games and also missed Rio 2016 after finishing seventh at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Tokyo.

After missing out on  the FIVB World Championship in 2014 – the first edition they failed to qualify for in 54 years – Japan made the 2018 edition earlier this year. They had previously won bronze medals at the World Championships of 1970 and 1974.

Japan have been crowned Asian champions eight times and have won the same number of gold medals at the Asian Games.

This year they competed in the FIVB World League for the 24th time, ranking 14th overall.