Basketball - Team Japan

General
Japan are the only basketball team to have competed at every Asian Games. The team have won eight medals but are yet to claim gold. They secured silver at the inaugural Games in 1951 and again in 1962, while the most recent of their six bronze medals came in 2014, when they triumphed over Kazakhstan in the third place play-off.

At the 2018 Games they bounced back from an opening defeat against Chinese Taipei [71-65] to advance out of their group, having beaten Qatar [82-71] and Hong Kong, China [88-82]. In the quarterfinals they faced eventual silver medallists the Islamic Republic of Iran and were defeated 93-67. In the classification bracket, they lost to the Philippines [113-80] but secured seventh place with an 84-66 win over hosts Indonesia.

The Japanese team won the Asia championship [now known as the Asia Cup] in 1965 and 1971. They also finished as runners-up five times and in third place seven times at the tournament in the 20th century. The team have not won a medal since 1997 though, and their 2022 Asia Cup campaign ended at the quarterfinal stage following a 99-85 defeat to eventual champions Australia.

Japan made their first of seven Olympic Games appearances in 1936. As hosts of the 2020 Games in Tokyo, they returned to Olympic competition after an absence of 45 years and placed 11th after losing their three group matches. The team made their fifth appearance at the World Cup in 2019, and were one of the host nations of the 2023 World Cup.