JVA usually prefers someone with a national title for this position, so the NEC head coach is probably an option too.
I actually really like Denso's head coach - Kawakita, and would love to see him with team A again. But Denso's performance the last few year was not really good.
The more I think about it, the more I like the Akinori Yamada idea. He won a couple championships with 170cm players and middle blockers, not with Big Caucasian Swinger.
I like Kawakita, too, but he often looks a little nervous and lost at crunch times, like he can't understand why things are going south, instead of looking like he has a plan
I will answer this in the best way possible.
China, Brazil and the USA in country gyms are very strong, based on their rankings. However for Japan, their in country gym is not as strong.
how do Japan’s players improve? Part of it is your playing style, do you like passing, serving, etc. however, what are somethings that are missing… is it strategy, outlook on play, wanting a new challenge.
Many Japanese players don’t mind being a big fish in a small pond. And that is fine for some players. However, in this case, I want Japanese players to make the attempt to go overseas and if you fail, it’s ok. You own it. Japanese culture is incredibly risk averse, and why players should and will not go overseas. However, look at those that do make the attempt in baseball, basketball and soccer, it is because they are willing to fail and learn from failure.
Japanese business learned kaizen from looking elsewhere to then refine and improve processes. How many businesses have a business/process improvement team? For volleyball, you have To do the same? It is a complete change of jump floats to all jump serves. More attacks on two? Passing better on digging to run middles? There are always opportunities to find where to beat teams, but when height is a challenge, you have to take risks., sometimes it will fail.
I'm pulling my support for Tomoko Yoshihara based on her being a continuation of Nakada. I know absolutely nothing about it. The source of this point of view could be a random tweet, but I trust in my comrades here who have suggested it
I throwing my full support behind Akinori Yamada because ngl I have a man-crush on him 
Close second is NoSmiler Akiyoshi Kawamoto because it would be so blood boilingly chaotic we'd have a good time with it. He's not a people person at all, but you'd be surprised how may players choose him as their "respected person".
Lovebunny continues to cultivate the youngsters and takes over for whoever fails next
I'd like to hear of anything similar about the Japanese players who went abroad.
- I don't get Maiko Kano at all
Poor thing, Kano went to Turkey to get court time since Saga did not let her play back then, J/K.
The only JPN player who actually made an impact on the her new Team and improved herself mentally and technically after the oversea stint, i can think of now is Shin. She played for Vincenza (IIRC) while still being at her top form and had loads of quality court time as one of the main scorer for this Series A Team during 2005-2006 season. Shin had been already rather agressive on court to begin with, and became even more so after that. Her game was superb in 2006 and 2007.
Our current JT coach, Tomoko Yoshihara also played in Series A about a decade before Shin. She must have been above decent as she was there for 2 seasons, and got a 'Cup' or medal or something like that with her Team, i can't remember right now. Media said she looked like she always 'fought' for life whenever on court after Atlanta 1996 just for JVA and all to see she was capable of anything. FYI, JVA removed her from the national Team as they thought she was to too old for the next Olympic cirle in Sydney (she was in late 20s back then lol). But IMHO, being the first JPN playing for a foreign Team could have been a big factor on her transittion too. Yoshihara was like the Erika Araki of her time, the real leader who would go crashing all oppenents on their heyday and collecting any available individual award from JVA.
Interestingly, Yoshihara on court was acutally the same type of player with Nakada, very much firece - unlike the usual JPN player we always see. Yet i haven't seen any of that side since both of them turned to coach.
I'm pulling my support for Tomoko Yoshihara based on her being a continuation of Nakada.
Yoshihara did turn down JVA's offer once in 2016 after Manabe's resignation. And I also highly doubt if she's gonna take the job after observing Nakada's failure. It's amazing on how she brought JT back to the podium of Premier League from Challenge League.
But national Team is defly a different story, and she knows that better than anyone else.
The more I think about it, the more I like the Akinori Yamada idea. He won a couple championships with 170cm players and middle blockers, not with Big Caucasian Swinger.
I like Kawakita, too, but he often looks a little nervous and lost at crunch times, like he can't understand why things are going south, instead of looking like he has a plan
Yeah, you're right about Kawakita, he's clueless when the real stuff went against all his prepared scenarios.
And thank you for bring back Akinori Yamada to my mind, I completely forgot him since i met the new cute coach lol. But where is he up to right now?
Why no one mentions the current Saga coach btw? He should be put on top in spite of how Saga performed the last season lol. He's got such a profilic career as a coach in the last 10 years, winning national title for both men's and women's teams. JVA even chose him to direct the horredous Team Core 2020 project at some point. And last but not least, they always love Saga's people dearly.
I agree with the statement "better players make you better" but it begs the question: What do you mean by "better players"? Bigger stronger attackers? In what other way is Boskovic a better player than Sarina Koga? (okay, serve lol)
+13 cm in height, jump, and better volleyball iq developed from playing in Turkish League/against top level competition in the Serbian NT.
you can't really do anything about the first two, but the second absolutely could be better.
I feel like there can be opportunity for the Japanese aboard and opportunities for development.
Look at Kelsey.
Hello, Kelsey is going to Japan 
Hello, Kelsey is going to Japan
wow I had no idea 
I think it'll be a good change of environment... especially if they want her to be the typical "American pin" some of her offense is dire lol.
Japan helped Drews refine her game a lot
wow I had no idea
I think it'll be a good change of environment... especially if they want her to be the typical "American pin" some of her offense is dire lol.
Japan helped Drews refine her game a lot
I don't think American pins can have their arms fall off after 80 swings, even if you do have JT.
What the heck is/was this:
Team Core 2020 project
JVA launched this special project right after Tokyo was chosen as the host for the Olympic games. A few 'gifted' boys & girls (around 12 for each) from local league and HS competition were selected then closely groomed by JVA's Team, aiming for nothing but at least a place on the podium at Tokyo 2020. The program was heavily promoted in 2013 and 2014 along with the newly invented tactics from Manabe. But after Rio 2016's failure, i did not hear anything else about it.
Still, most of the boys from this project survived and actually became the core of the current senior Team in this circle. Meanwhile, no selected girls made it to the Olympic except Koga and Kurogo. IIRC, the list included our lovely Miyashita, the awkward Misaki Shirai of Toray, our poor girl Riho Otake, the overated Nozumi Ito of Toray and Nana Sakamoto of Denso, Miyashi Minabe - the little black pearl at WC 2015 and Arisa Inoue who brought JPN to the final of the 2013 U20 world championship.
I'm pretty sure the current Saga coach handled the boy's Team back then as his Team just won the national title in previous season. Toray's coach turned down the offer to deal with the girl's Team, so someone else took over but i could not remember exactly who. At first i assumed it must have been Kawakita but he was at Turkey with Saori so it should be someone else. Probably Kiyoshi Abo ?!
Miyashi Minabe - the little black pearl at WC 2015
This is Airi Miyabe.
Probably Kiyoshi Abo ?!
It was Abo. I think this was the initial group for boys and girls 指導方法策定、普及事業、有望選手発掘、選手強化の4つを柱とする『Project CORE』発表記者会見を開催！ - トピックス｜公益財団法人日本バレーボール協会 (googleusercontent.com). The page on JVA site is dead now.
This is Airi Miyabe.
It was Abo. I think this was the initial group for boys and girls 指導方法策定、普及事業、有望選手発掘、選手強化の4つを柱とする『Project CORE』発表記者会見を開催！ - トピックス｜公益財団法人日本バレーボール協会 (googleusercontent.com). The page on JVA site is dead now.
Thanks so much for the picture, everyone in the back row looked so cute .
Why no one mentions the current Saga coach btw? He should be put on top in spite of how Saga performed the last season lol. He's got such a profilic career as a coach in the last 10 years, winning national title for both men's and women's teams. JVA even chose him to direct the horredous Team Core 2020 project at some point. And last but not least, they always love Saga's people dearly.
What's so special about Sakai? He had a good run, sure, but Hisamitsu flopped in 2019 with Ishii as cap and they still had Shinnabe and probably did even worse last year. They don't have any rising stars though Araki is showing some good potential. He should focus on pulling Saga out of the gutter first.
Also wanted to add that it is tragic that the women's team will continued to be ignored and neglected even more this time around with them sinking to 10th place not that they were treated any better when they were ahead of the men's team in ranking. Changes need to happen within the association to ensure Hinotori isn't going to fade to obscurity come 2024.
Like Avid already mentioned, they should try pushing Koga to play in a top tier club in Italy or Turkey and see if it yields anything. It doesn't necessarily guarantee that she will be better but if their "best" players don't get used to other environments then they never develop further. Which is needed now more than ever since they do not have any official ace. I never understood why Miyashita was denied playing overseas. She didn't regress but she was just stuck in the same level without any outstanding growth when she could have been capable of more.
Poor planning and development for their female players.
japan need to be up now cause paris qualifiers in in 2 years only
I doubt they make it in international qualifiers and in asia it won't be easy as korea and thailand despite losing kyk and fab 5 are still dangerous for them
Bring Miyashita back should be the main focus of Paris2024. 😤
Japn should bring back their iconic do or die defense since their attacking has downgraded a lot these days.
The question of whether they will even qualify actually scares me.
For the time being, the least JVA could do is make them compete more. They have nothing to do post-Olympics but they should put them in a friendly match with Netherlands or Germany (with Lippmann) really anything to make them active.
This better be an entirely different team under Yoshihara. If the only thing they've got going for them is relying on the K-I-K trinity of Koga, Ishikawa and Kobata then they're not gonna make it far