{"id":511515,"date":"2026-03-01T09:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T09:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511515\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T09:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T09:46:09","slug":"japans-long-awaited-moment-and-why-it-matters-fiba-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511515\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s long-awaited moment and why it matters\u00a0|\u00a0FIBA Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tickets available soon<\/p>\n

Support your country in Doha<\/p>\n

Register Now<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

OKINAWA (Japan) – Japan pulled the curtains down on their FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers Window 2 campaign with a win over Korea, 78-72.<\/p>\n

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Aside from being an entertaining back-and-forth between two high-level teams, it also meant a lot more for the winning side of the game for various reasons.<\/p>\n

Here’s why:<\/p>\n

Ending the streak\"\"<\/p>\n

Prior to this game, Japan had lost six straight games in major FIBA competitions to their East Asian rivals – all in the FIBA Asia Cup. As a matter of fact, the last time Japan had defeated Korea in such a game was almost 30 years ago in the Second Round of Asia Cup 1997.<\/p>\n

They also played against each other in the Final of the competition with Korea coming out on top.<\/p>\n

It is also only Japan’s second win over Korea in major FIBA competitions since 1987 as well.<\/p>\n

Head-to-head matchups: Japan vs Korea (Since 1983):<\/p>\n

Year<\/p>\n

Competition<\/p>\n

Winning team<\/p>\n

Final score<\/p>\n

2026<\/p>\n

FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers<\/p>\n

Japan<\/p>\n

78-72<\/p>\n

2017<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

81-68<\/p>\n

2011<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

86-67<\/p>\n

2009<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

95-74<\/p>\n

2007<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

93-83<\/p>\n

1999<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

64-61<\/p>\n

1997<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

78-76<\/p>\n

1997<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Japan<\/p>\n

89-83<\/p>\n

1995<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

97-78<\/p>\n

1993<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

89-66<\/p>\n

1991<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

92-79<\/p>\n

1989<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

100-86<\/p>\n

1987<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Korea<\/p>\n

85-52<\/p>\n

1983<\/p>\n

FIBA Asia Cup<\/p>\n

Japan<\/p>\n

93-88<\/p>\n

Bouncing Back at home<\/p>\n

This was going to be an important win for either of the two teams. Both we coming off tough losses on February 26 – delaying their plans to make an early confirmation to qualify for the Second Round.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

It was especially tough for Japan as they had lost that game to China at home in the Okinawa Areana. This was also the venue that hosted the First Round of the World Cup in 2023 and where Japan emotionally clinched a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Being able to bring that positive energy back to Okinawa Arena was certainly something to celebrate for AKATSUKI JAPAN.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Okinawa Arena<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Okinawa Arena<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Okinawa Arena<\/p>\n

First win for coach Oketani<\/p>\n

Another interesting parallel for both Japan and Korea was that both of their coaches were making their national team debut in this Window; Dai Oketani for Japan – their first local coach in a long while and Nikolajs Mazurs for Korea – their first ever foreign coach.<\/p>\n

After suffering losses in their first game, that meant only one of them would come out with a victory.<\/p>\n

Oketani ended up collecting this win and he happily did so in a “home” venue as well, as the 48-year-old also coaches the Ryukyu Golden Kings in Japan’s B.League.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

FIBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tickets available soon Support your country in Doha Register Now OKINAWA (Japan) – Japan pulled the curtains down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-511515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}