Basketball - Team Japan

General
Tokyo will mark the Japanese team's return to the Olympic Games after a 45-year absence. They took part in six editions of the Games from 1936 to 1976 with a best finish of 10th in both 1956 and 1964.

In 2019 the Japanese team competed at the World Cup for the first time since the 2006 edition, when the tournament was still known as the world championship. They found it tough at the 2019 World Cup, losing all five group matches they played across two rounds to rank 31st out of 32 teams.

At continental level, Japan have featured at every Asian Games basketball tournament since 1951, winning eight medals during that time. Although they are yet to claim gold, they won silver in 1951 and 1962 and secured bronze on the other six occasions. At the 2018 Games in Indonesia, they were ranked seventh after a quarterfinal exit at the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Japan have had more success at the Asian championships, with two titles in 1965 and 1971 and five runners-up finishes. They have not ranked in the top three at the tournament since placing second in 1997, and they came ninth at the most recent edition in 2017 when the tournament was renamed the Asia Cup.