Swimming - Team Japan

General
Japan have contested the women's 4x200m freestyle relay at four Olympic Games prior to Tokyo, and have managed to qualify for the final in each of those appearances. In Rio in 2016, Japan finished the final in eighth and last place, just as they did at the 2012 Games in London. The fourth place they recorded at the 1996 Games, when the event made its Olympic debut, remains their best result.

At the world championships, Japan claimed their one and only medal to date in front of a home crowd in 2001 in Fukuoka. After originally finishing fifth, they were promoted to the bronze medal position after the first and second finishers, Australia and the United States of America, were disqualified. Since then, they have reached the worlds final on all but three occasions, but have never finished higher than fifth, which they achieved in 2017.