BENGALURU: Basketball is not as popular in Japan as it is in China. It comes a distant third after baseball and football. But with the latter two are mainly male-dominated sport in Japan, women have taken a keen interest in basketball. To top that, there is a great rivalry with China and the hunger to match the mighty Chinese at the Asian level, Japan has slowly grown into a strong contender. Four months ago here in Bengaluru, Japan completed a hat-trick of FIBA Women’s Asia Cup, toppling Australia by a point in the final.
Those three consecutive titles have fuelled a basketball movement in the Land of the Rising Sun with more girls taking interest. But how has Japan developed into a basketball power in Asia, given their small heights? Japan’s U-16 women’s team coach Mikiko Hagiwara says it’s speed on the court that has helped them take on China and Australia. “You know height is a disadvantage for us. Since we are smaller in size, we make sure we are fast and agile.
Another factor that we work on is accuracy. That helps us against China or any country with taller players among their ranks,” she said. Japan used the same strategy against New Zealand in semifinals in the FIBA U-16 Women’s Asian Championship. Misa Hayashi and Yuki Shuto led the attack on Friday as Japan beat NZ 97-65 to set up a final with Australia, a repeat of Women’s Asia Cup final this year. “We were not good against Chinese Taipei.
Though we won we made mistakes and our accuracy was poor. Against a strong defensive side like NZ, we had to better our accuracy and we did just that.” With China out of the equation, Hagiwara feels Australia would be the real test. However, she is happy with Australia and New Zealand joining Asia group as it will help them improve their game. “Previously we just had to concentrate on China and South Korea. Now we have to make plans for Australia and NZ.
They are bigger in size and technically better than us,” she said. Coming into the tournament, Japan’s target was to qualify for the FIBA U-17 World Cup. With the mission already accomplished, Hagiwara eyes continuity with the team to prepare them for the senior national team. krishnendu@newindianexpress.com
Semifinals: Division A: Australia 86 bt China 46; Japan 97 bt NZ 65. Division B: Malaysia 85 bt Iran 68. India 77 bt Kazakhstan 40.