Japan Women's NT 2026

    2026 Japan Women's National Team

    Hinotori Nippon
    火の鳥NIPPON


    New Head Coach: Ferhat Akbaş

    2026 Wide Roster (not yet)

    Setters Libero MBs OHs OPs






    • = A return from previous service

    •• = New Blood

    2026 National Team Schedule

    • Volleyball Nations League :: June 3 -- July 26 ... Quebec City, Canada, (TBD) Philippines, Kansai (Japan), Macau (China)
    • Asian Championship :: August 21 -- 30 ... Tianjin (China)
    • 20th Asian Games (2026/Aichi, Nagoya) :: September 16–22 ... Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, Komaki City, Aichi Prefecture

    (Red and White Matches May 19 and 21)


    U-Squad happenings:

    • U17 World Championship :: August 8–16 ... Santiago (Chile)
    • Asian U18 Championship :: July 1–7 ... Nakhon Ratchasima (Thailand)
    • Asian U20 Championship :: TBD
    • --
    • Eastern Zonal Championship :: August 11–16 (University Squad) ... Hong Kong

    Do we think Kojima is at the level of previous libero Queens that nobody could touch until they retired, like Yuko Sano, Mio Sato, and Mako Kobata?


    Not sure if my memory serves me well about that but I think it was so. I believe Fukudome knocked Kojima out of a World Championship a few ago


    I'm still high on Iwasawa because she's goofy and fun

    Quote from sitenoise

    Do we think Kojima is at the level of previous libero Queens that nobody could touch until they retired, like Yuko Sano, Mio Sato, and Mako Kobata?


    Not sure if my memory serves me well about that but I think it was so. I believe Fukudome knocked Kojima out of a World Championship a few ago


    I'm still high on Iwasawa because she's goofy and fun

    I only watched yuko sano and to me, she was one of the best libero ever. So I would put her above kojima although Kojima is currently top3 libero in the world

    It was around April 10 last year when the NT Wide dropped. I thought (hoped) for sure I'd wake up to an announcement this morning

    I'm not following things as much as I used to but there doesn't seem to be much chatter. Is Ferhat even in the house?

    If Kitty or Miku move in who loses their spot?

    Ayami Urayama for libero :rose:

    the deadline for the submission of rosters was April 12 for women. jva will probably drop it by next week.

    Quote from denzz

    Melissa Valdes will join as practice player?

    it's not mentioned as JVA announced.

    Moreover, it clearly indicates that all composition of JVNT, participating in 2026 annual scheduled games, will be directly selected from the above 37-player long list.

    Melissa is apparently not included in the list.

    i may not be the tallest,
    the fastest, or the strongest,
    but at least i can do one thing better than anyone else,
    to be me...

    Here's the list in table format. I've included their height and year of birth. Let me know if there's a mistake so I can correct it.


    The JVA list tagged all wing spikers as OH as usual, but I added an OPP tag to those who are currently playing as OPP in their teams.


    OH / OPPMBSL
    SHIMA (175, 1999)SHIMAMURA (182, 1992)SAKAE (168, 1991)KOJIMA (158, 1994)
    ISHIKAWA (174, 2000)KINOE (182, 1997)MATSUI (170, 1998)FUKUDOME (162, 1997)
    SATO, Y (178, 2001)MIYABE, AI (181, 1998)SHIODE (174, 1999)IWASAWA (163, 1999)
    SHIGIHARA (175, 2001)YAMAGUCHI (176, 1999)SEKI (171, 1999)NISHIMURA (168, 2000)
    MIYABE, AM (174, 2001)YAMADA (184, 2000)NAKAGAWA (159, 2000)NISHIZAKI (158, 2002)
    KAWAZOE (170, 2001)ARAKI (185, 2001)NINOMIYA (170, 2003)
    WADA (175, 2002) --- OPPHONDA (177, 2003)HANAOKA (174, 2006)
    HIROTA (176, 2003)INOUE (180, 2006)KOBAYASHI (178, 2009)
    KITAMADO (183, 2004)YAMASHITA (184, 2008)
    SATO, A (176, 2004) --- OPPBABA (180, 2008)
    AKIMOTO (185, 2006)
    OMORI (173, 2006)
    CHUGANJI (182, 2008)--- OPP
    OKUMO (184, 2009)