Philippe Blain, the head coach of the Japanese men’s national volleyball team, has unveiled a 32-player roster for the 2024 season, which includes the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Among the selected players are three newcomers poised to make their mark in the upcoming competitions. The roster retains all 17 players from last season’s team, which achieved a historic bronze in the VNL 2023 and secured a spot in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Japan is looking forward to incorporating the talents of next-generation athletes, including 20-year-old Keihan Takahashi and 19-year-old Kento Asano. Their performances are highly anticipated as Japan aims to build on last year’s successes.
Preparations kick off on April 10 at the Ajinomoto National Training Center in Tokyo.
Japan men’s national team roster:
- Setters: Akihiro Fukatsu, Issei Maeda, Masahiro Sekita, Masaki Oya, Motoki Eiro, Ryu Yamamoto
- Opposites: Hiroto Nishiyama, Keihan Takahashi, Kento Miyaura, Yuji Nishida
- Outside hitters: Akito Yamazaki, Alain De Armas, Kenta Takanashi, Kenyu Nakamoto, Masato Kai, Ran Takahashi, Shoma Tomita, Tatsunori Otsuka, Yudai Arai, Yuki Ishikawa
- Middle blockers: Akihiro Yamauchi, Cole Watanabe, Go Murayama, Keigo Nishimoto, Kentaro Takahashi, Kento Asano, Larry Evbade-Dan, Taishi Onodera
- Liberos: Kazuyuki Takahashi, Soshi Fujinaka, Tomohiro Ogawa, Tomohiro Yamamoto