Japan overthrew China after the volleyball world cup

From being the "big sister" of Asian women's volleyball, China was surpassed by Japan after the end of the 2025 World Championship.

China (red shirt) was surpassed by Japan again - Photo: XN

Mayu Ishikawa and Yoshino Sato’s efforts in the semi-finals and third-place play-offs were not in vain. Thanks to those close losses, Japan officially maintained a higher score than China.

Unlike football, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) updates the rankings every day, every match. The competition between volleyball teams is therefore extremely fierce, and plays an extremely important role in dividing groups for world tournaments that take place throughout the year.

Ahead of the World Championship, China ranked 5th - 2 places higher than Japan, and was considered the strongest women's volleyball team in Asia.

The race between Chinese and Japanese women's volleyball fully reflects the correlation in sports class, science and technology level of the two leading countries in Asia.

Japan dominated volleyball in the 1960s and 1970s, winning three world championships during this period.

But since the arrival of Westerners in the volleyball race, Japan has gradually fallen behind due to its physical weakness. Since the 1980s, China has emerged with a group of stars from the North, as tall as Russians or Central Asian peoples.

Since the 2010s, China has continued to dominate Japan, reaching the semi-finals of the world championship twice. They also made a big splash when they won the Olympic gold medal in women's volleyball in Rio de Janeiro 2016.

Even at the Asiad (Asian Games), China also dominated, winning two consecutive championships in 2018 and 2022, most recently crushing Japan 3-0 in the final.

In general, the top volleyball community in recent years has recognized that China is in the top group, capable of competing for the championship in every tournament. Meanwhile, Japan has been pushed back to the "challenging" group.

The reason is easy to understand. Japanese girls - with an average height of only about 1m75 - are at a disadvantage when facing Western teams with an average height of about 1m90 in every tournament.

At the 2025 World Cup, China is even the tallest team in the tournament, with an average height of 1m90, 15cm more than Japan - the shortest team in the tournament.

But then the surprise came, China suffered a shocking defeat to France - not a very strong volleyball team - in the round of 16. Meanwhile, Japan crushed host Thailand, then came from behind to beat the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.

Right after China suffered a shocking loss to France and received a heavy penalty (18.27 points), they were surpassed by Japan on the rankings.

Japan then lost 1-3 to Türkiye and 2-3 to Brazil in the third-place match. However, their last-ditch effort against Brazil meant Japan was only deducted a symbolic 0.85 points.

With that, the Japanese have officially overthrown China when the World Championship ended. Currently, Japan has 346.26 points, ranked 5th in the world, exactly 1 place higher than China (337.02 points).

The victory in Thailand also marked Japan's return to the top 4 of the world championship after 15 years.

Back to topic

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhat-ban-lat-do-trung-quoc-sau-giai-bong-chuyen-the-gioi-20250908094944281.htm