Japan women's national rugby union team

Japan

Nickname(s)	Sakura 15 (Cherry Blossom 15) 桜十五 (kanji), 櫻十五 (old kanji), さくらじゅうご (hiragana)
Union	Japan Rugby Football Union
First colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	12 (as of 23 November 2020)
First international
Japan 0-62 France (Aberavon, Wales 6 April 1991)
Biggest win
Japan 78-0 Hong Kong (Bangkok, Thailand 3 June 2005)
Biggest defeat
United States 121-0 Japan (Melrose, Scotland 15 April 1994)
World Cup
Appearances	3 (First in 1991)

The Japan women's national rugby union team are a national sporting side of Japan, representing them at rugby union. The side first played in 1991.

History

Japan made their debut at the 1991 Women's Rugby World Cup. Since then, Japan has appeared at three other editions of the World Cup in, the 1994, 2002 and 2017.

The team has won the Asia Rugby Women's Championship in 2015,^[1] 2016 and 2017.

Squad

Japan's 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup squad:^[2][3]

Results summary

(Full internationals only)

Rugby: Japan internationals 1991-

Opponent	First game	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Percentage
Canada	1994	1	0	0	1	0.00%
Fiji	2016	1	1	0	0	100.00%
France	1991	2	0	0	2	0.00%
Hong Kong	1998	11	10	0	1	90.91%
Ireland	1994	3	1	0	2	33.33%
Italy	2002	1	0	0	1	0.00%
Kazakhstan	2005	7	0	0	7	0.00%
Netherlands	2002	2	1	0	1	50.00%
Samoa	2000	1	1	0	0	100.00%
Singapore	2007	4	4	0	0	100.00%
Spain	1991	2	0	0	2	0.00%
Sweden	1991	2	1	0	1	50.00%
United States	1994	1	0	0	1	0.00%
Summary	1991	38	19	0	19	50.00%

Results

See Women's international rugby for information about the status of international games and match numbering

Full internationals

[48]
	1991-04-06 (WC)	France	62-0	Japan	Aberavon	[19/1/1]

[56]
	1991-04-10 (WC)	Japan	0-20	Sweden	Llanharan	[2/8/1]

[62]
	1991-04-11 (WC)	Japan	0-30	Spain	Cardiff	[3/4/1]

[86]
	1994-04-13 (WC)	Japan	10-5	Sweden	Melrose	[3/11/2]

[89]
	1994-04-15 (WC)	Japan	0-121	United States	Melrose	[4/16/1]

[96]
	1994-04-17 (WC)	France	99-0	Japan	Edinburgh Academicals RFC	[27/5/2]

[101]
	1994-04-20 (WC)	Canada	57-0	Japan	Melrose	[13/6/1]

[104]
	1994-04-23 (WC)	Ireland	11-3	Japan	Boroughmuir	[6/7/1]

[188]
	1998-04-08	Japan	42-14	Hong Kong	Kumagaya Rugby Stadium	[8/1/1]

[189]
	1998-04-12	Japan	39-0	Hong Kong	Kumagaya Rugby Stadium	[9/2/2]

[289]
	2000-09-01	Samoa	10-12	Japan	Apia Park	[1/10/1]

[296]
	2000-12-15 (WCQ)	Hong Kong	0-62	Japan	Aberdeen Park, Hong Kong	[3/11/3]

[367]
	2002-05-13 (WC)	Spain	62-0	Japan	Barcelona	[45/12/1]

[374]
	2002-05-17 (WC)	Italy	30-3	Japan	Barcelona	[37/13/1]

[379]
	2002-05-20 (WC)	Japan	37-3	Netherlands	Barcelona	[14/58/1]

[387]
	2002-05-24 (WC)	Ireland	0-18	Japan	Barcelona	[48/15/2]

[470]
	2004-11-06	Netherlands	15-7	Japan	Amsterdam	[66/16/2]

[472]
	2004-11-14	Ireland	55-0	Japan	Donnybrook	[62/17/3]

[504]
	2005-06-03 (WCQ)	Hong Kong	0-78	Japan	Bangkok	[4/18/4]

[507]
	2005-06-05 (WCQ)	Kazakhstan	19-3	Japan	Bangkok	[32/19/1]

[649]
	2007-11-02 (AC)	Japan	6-10	Kazakhstan	Kunming	[20/38/2]

[650]
	2007-11-04 (AC)	Japan	20-7	Singapore	Kunming	[21/4/1]

[707]
	2008-06-05 (AC)	Japan	17-10	Singapore	Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan	[22/6/2]

[710]
	2008-06-07 (AC)	Kazakhstan	39-3	Japan	Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan	[41/23/3]

[773]
	2009-11-04 (WCQ)	Singapore	11-35	Japan	Republic Polytechnic, Singapore	[10/24/3]

[776]
	2009-11-06 (WCQ)	Japan	5-43	Kazakhstan	Padang, Singapore	[25/43/4]

[825]
	2010-05-22	Japan	17-0	Hong Kong	Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, Tokyo	[27/15/5]

[882]
	2011-04-29	Hong Kong	0-15	Japan	Hong Kong	[17/28/6]

[945]
	2012-05-19	Japan	61-15	Hong Kong	Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Tokyo	[29/19/7]

[952]
	2012-07-05 (AC)	Japan	41-17	Hong Kong	Kunshan, China	[30/20/8]

[955]
	2012-07-07 (AC)	Japan	8-17	Kazakhstan	Kunshan, China	[31/53/25]

[1011]
	2013-09-04 (AC)	Japan	82-0	Hong Kong	Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan	[32/22/9]

[1014]
	2013-09-07 (AC)	Kazakhstan	25-23	Japan	Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan	[55/33/26]

[1040]
	2014-05-18 (AC)	Japan	37-5	Singapore	Aberdeen Stadium, Aberdeen, Hong Kong	[34/22/4]

[1043]
	2014-05-21 (AC)	Hong Kong	15-14	Japan	Aberdeen Stadium, Aberdeen, Hong Kong	[28/35/10]

[1045]
	2014-05-24 (AC)	Kazakhstan	49-17	Japan	Aberdeen Stadium, Aberdeen, Hong Kong	[56/36/5]

[1109]
	2015-05-09 (AC)	Japan	27-12	Kazakhstan	Level-5 Stadium, Fukuoka	[37/65/8]

[1110]
	2015-05-23 (AC)	Hong Kong	12-27	Japan	Aberdeen Sports Ground, Aberdeen, Hong Kong	[29/38/10]

[1174]
	2016-12-13	Japan	55–0	Fiji	Hong Kong	[39/5/1]

[1175]
	2016-12-17	Hong Kong	8–20	Japan	Hong Kong	[33/40/11]

[1196]
	2017-06-11	Wales	10–52	Japan	Ystrad Mynach	[178/41/1]

[1201]
	2017-07-08 (ARC)	Japan	58–0	Hong Kong	Shiroyama	[42/35/12]

[1203]
	2017-07-15 (ARC)	Hong Kong	19–60	Japan	Hong Kong	[36/43/13]

[1210]
	2017-08-09 (WC)	France	72–14	Japan	Billings Park UCD, Dublin	[214/44/3]

[1215]
	2017-08-13 (WC)	Ireland	24–14	Japan	UCD Bowl, Dublin	[150/45/4]

[1220]
	2017-08-17 (WC)	Australia	29–15	Japan	Billings Park UCD, Dublin	[47/46/1]

[1223]
	2017-08-22 (WC)	Italy	22–0	Japan	Queen's University Belfast	[136/48/2]

[1229]
	2017-08-26 (WC)	Japan	44–5	Hong Kong	Queen's University Belfast	[49/41/14]

[1329]
	2019-07-13	Australia	34–5	Japan	Sportsground 2, Newcastle	[52/50/2]

[1334]
	2019-07-19	Australia	46–3	Japan	North Sydney Oval, Sydney	[53/51/3]

[1355]
	2019-11-16	Italy	17–17	Japan	Stadio Fattori, L'Aquila	[127/52/3]

[1363]
	2019-11-24	Scotland	20–24	Japan	Scotstoun	[-/53/1]

Other matches

[-]
	2009-09-23	Burnaby Lake WRFC	25-24	Japan	Burnaby Lake	[-]

[-]
	2009-09-26	British Columbia	38-0	Japan	Brockton Oval, Vancouver	[-]

[-]
	2010-09-02	Richmond WRFC	27-5	Japan	Old Deer Park	[-]

[-]
	2010-09-04	Saracens WRFC	10-34	Japan	Bramley Road, Southgate	[-]

See also

References

External links

• Japan RFU Official English page
• Japan Times Articles by Rich Freeman - Japan Times rugby correspondent until 2005, then at the Daily Yomiuri
• Japan RFU - in Japanese
• Japanese rugby union news from Planet Rugby