Japan Head Coach Eddie Jones has named his first Brave Blossoms squad for 2026. The 35-member squad, comprising 19 forwards and 16 backs will come together on Friday, June 19 for a training camp in Miyazaki, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, ahead of their first match in the 2026 Nations Championship against Italy in Tokyo on July 4.
Prior to the full squad coming together, 12 members of the squad announced today will join up with 21 members of the wider Japan training squad from July 13 in Miyazaki as the JAPAN XV prepare for their un-capped match against the Māori All Blacks on Saturday, 27 June at Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya.
Japan’s match against Italy will be the first of three matches in the Southern Hemisphere leg of the Nations Championship where they will also face Ireland on July 11 at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle, Australia followed by France at Tokyo’s National Stadium on July 18.
The competition will reconvene again in November for the Northern Hemisphere leg with the Brave Blossoms set to face Wales, England and Scotland in Cardiff, London and Edinburgh respectively. All 12 participating teams will then battle it out across the Finals weekend in London on November 27-29.
Commenting at a press conference in Tokyo to announce the squad, Japan Head Coach Eddie Jones said:
“Going into the Nations Championship, our aim is to be the team of the tournament, so that at the end of the tournament, the team that everybody wants to watch is Japan. We’ve got two weeks to get ready for the game against Italy from when we assemble in Miyazaki. Italy is the most improved team in the world. Their work rate off the ball is higher than any other team, so to beat them, we’re going to have to beat them in that area. Our work off the ball will have to be exceptional. If we can play hard off the ball, we’ve got a good chance of beating them.”
While the Brave Blossoms squad includes a number of experienced test campaigners and leaders, Jones continues with his mantra of bringing through Japan’s next generation of playing talent ahead of next year’s World Cup in Australia. Of the 35 players announced today, 10 are uncapped while 13 hold just ten caps or less. Addressing this aspect, Jones said, “When you look at the squad we’ve picked, there are probably ten players who are unavailable that would normally be in our top 23. They’ve been replaced by ten new caps, who now get an opportunity.”
Of the 35 players in the squad 29 are drawn from JRLO which came to a thrilling conclusion in Tokyo over the weekend. Three members play in Japan’s university competition, while another three played their club rugby this season outside of Japan. This includes Warner Dearns and Mamoru Harada who played in Super Rugby Pacific and Naoto Saito who recently finished his stint with French Top 14 club, Stade Toulousain.
Following their three Nations Championship matches in July, the Brave Blossoms will also play a two-match home and away series against the Australia in August before returning to Niigata City in September to host Canada in a one-off test match.
Japan squad for The Nations Championship:
Forwards [19]
Sojiro OTSUKA Kwansei Gakuin Univ.
Takato OKABE YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES
Yota KAMIMORI Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY
Hayate ERA Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY
Kenji SATO SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS
Mamoru HARADA Moana Pasifika
Izi SWORD Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY
Shuhei TAKEUCHI TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
Keijiro TAMEFUSA Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY
Jack CORNELSEN SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS
Michael STOLBERG TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO
Warner DEARNS TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO
Harry HOCKINGS TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
Ben GUNTER SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS
Tiennan COSTLEY KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS
Kanji SHIMOKAWA TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
Waisake RARATUBUA KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS
Esei HAANGANA SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS
Michael LEITCH TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO
Backs [16]
Itsuki KAMIMURA KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS
Naoto SAITO Stade Toulousain
Takuro HOJO MIE Honda HEAT
Haruto WATANABE Kindai Univ.
Ryunosuke ITO Meiji Univ.
Shinya KOMURA TOYOTA VERBLITZ
Samisoni TUA URAYASU D-Rocks
Shogo NAKANO TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
Yuya HIROSE Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY
Dylan RILEY SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS
Kippei ISHIDA YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES
Kazuma UEDA KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS
Haruto KIDA Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY
Inoke BURUA KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS
Shunsuke UENOBO KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS
Takuro MATSUNAGA TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO
*Players Unavailable due to fitness or injury concerns:
Keita Inagaki (Saitama Wild Knights), Kenta Kobayashi (Tokyo Sungoliath), Ruan Bota (Kubota Spears), Manato Nakamori (University of Tsukuba), Tyler Paul (Kubota Spears), Austin Moriyama (Urayasu D-Rocks), Amato Fakatava (Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo), Makisi Faulua (Kubota Spears), Shinobu Fujiwara (Kubota Spears), Seungsin Lee (Kobelco Kobe Steelers), Sho Okumura (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Charlie Lawrence (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars), Tomoki Nagata (Saitama Wild Knights), Yoshitaka Yazaki (Waseda University)
2026 Nations Championship Japan Match Schedule - Southern Hemisphere Series
Saturday, July 4
Japan v Italy
Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Tokyo
Saturday, July 11
Japan v Ireland
McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle, Australia
Saturday, July 18
Japan v France
National Stadium, Tokyo
