Making its fifth-ever appearance at the FIBA World Cup, Japan will dispatch arguably its best-ever squad on the global stage.
While rough challenges are awaiting the team, which will face some of the world¡¯s elites in the 32-nation tourney in China, the Akatsuki Five are giving their home fans unprecedented high expectations because of the talent that the nation hasn¡¯t previously seen.
Japan will take on Turkey (17th in the FIBA rankings), the Czech Republic (24) and the United States (1) in that order in Group E of the round-robin first round at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. The top two teams in each of the eight groups will advance to another four-team group second round, from which the best two teams will proceed to the eight-team knockout round.
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