Japan Men’s and Women’s National Teams Qualified For 2020 Tokyo Olympic Hockey Games

To the Press,

Once again, please accept our sincerest thanks for your understandings and supports for our association’s hockey promotion.

This time, FIH (International Hockey Federation) announced that Japan hockey men’s and women’s national teams have been qualified for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Hockey Games (The participating countries are 12 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams. One team has 16 members, total 384 players participate in the Olympic hockey games). The other 11 participating countries are selected for 5 champions for each continent and 6 teams for the Olympic preliminary game, except the host country, Japan.

There are some cases that host countries are not able to participate in the Olympics, for example, Brazil women’s national team in 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Greeces men’s and women’s national team in 2014 Athene Olympics. We believe that Japan men’s and women’s national teams secure Olympic berth early in this time, since FIH values the present Japanese hockey level fairly.

At the present, Japan’s hockey world ranking is 12nd (women), 16th (men) but we make effort to improve our rankings and aim for medals for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.