Major honours
Japan is Asia's only Tier 1-adjacent rugby nation. The Japan Rugby Football Union formed in 1926, and the team played its first Test against Canada in 1932, but for decades a 17-145 defeat to New Zealand at the 1995 World Cup defined the national side. The turnaround began at Brighton in 2015, when coach Eddie Jones's side beat South Africa 34-32, the biggest upset in rugby history, though Japan still became the first team to win three pool matches and miss the quarterfinal. In its home tournament in 2019, it beat Ireland 19-12 and Scotland 28-21, topped its pool and became the first Asian team to reach the knockout stage; total tournament attendance topped 1.7 million, proving the potential of the Asian rugby market. League One, a professional competition launched in 2022, has since signed a wave of top players from the southern hemisphere and Europe, building one of the best-paying leagues in the world. Lock Hitoshi Ono holds the team's cap record with 98.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
Regional qualifying battles with South Korea and Hong Kong have anchored Asian rugby for decades, and since 2015, the fixture against South Africa has become the most internationally watched match on Japan's calendar.