JAPAN XV 2026 Squad Announced

rugbyasia247 Posted On May 18, 2026

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Hong Kong China Men's XV vs Japan XV Preview

The JRFU announced the JAPAN XV squad for the training camp in Oita, with the players due to be involved in the two Japan Select XV matches against Hong Kong China Select V, and the Maori All Blacks in the Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2026 at Paloma Mizuho Stadium (Aichi) on Saturday, June 27th.

The Japan Rugby Football Union also announced that Brave Blossoms forwards coach Neal Hatley will step in as Head Coach on a temporary basis following the suspension of Eddie Jones. Hatley is the former Bath forwards coach, and he joined the Brave Blossoms staff in 2024. He has previously also led the JAPAN XV team when they played HKCR at Kai Tak Stadium in 2025.

The training camp will run from May 18-27, 2026, with the two Japanese Select XV matches against the HKCR Select XV taking place on Friday, 22 May and Friday, 29 May.

JAPAN XV 2026 Squad

The 33-man Japan XV squad doesn’t include players still involved in the JRLO Play-offs and Promotion/Relegation fixtures, which will be played the same weekend as the HKCR matches. However, they could be in contention for the Māori All Blacks match in June.

Ten of the selected players are still at University, while the remainder play in the JRLO.

Forwards: Sojiro OTSUKA (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.), Kanato HIRANO (Honda Heat), Kenta YAMASHITA (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Shun ARAKAWA (Doshisha Univ.), Shunsuke SAKUTA (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Koki HIDA (Honda Heat), Takumi INABA (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Katsuyuki HOSHINO (Honda Heat), Taufa LATU (Toyota Verblitz), Ryusei KOIKE (Toyota Verblitz), Katsuto KUBO (Yokohama Canon Eagles), Isaiah MAPUSUA (Toyota Verblitz), Jingo MURATA (Toyota Verblitz), Malgene ILAUA (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Masato FURUKAWA (Yokohama Canon Eagles), Kota YAMAUCHI (Hosei Univ.), Aseri MASIVOU (Honda Heat), Rikuto NAKAYA (Doshisha Univ.)

Backs: Shuntaro KITAMURA (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Takuro HOJO (Honda Heat), Haruto WATANABE (Kindai Univ.), Ryunosuke ITO (Meiji Univ.), Riku KITAHARA (Honda Heat), Shinya KOMURA (Toyota Verblitz), Soma OKAZAKI (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Futo SATO (Teikyo Univ.), Chisu LEE (Korea Univ.), Kohaku EBISAWA (Meiji Univ.), Kosho MUTO (Yokohama Canon Eagles), Futo YAMAGUCHI (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Rakuhei YAMASHITA (Honda Heat), Sam GREENE (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Jingo TAKENOSHITA (Meiji Univ.)