Japan

Japan's national team had its first international tournament at the 3rd Far Eastern Games held in Tokyo in 1917, at which Japan was represented by the team of the Kyoto YMCA.

Later, the team was a founding member of the Olympics Basketball competition in Berlin 1936.

After 1936, Japan Henceforth, they participated almost every time until 1976. Team Japan was a regular at world tournaments. It had its debut at the FIBA World Championship in 1963. It was the top team in Asia, as it won the championship there in 1965 and 1971.

At the 1976 Summer Olympics, Japan's Shigeaki Abe put up a noteworthy performance of 38 points and 10 assists against Puerto Rico.

As runner-up at the Fukuoka Universiade in 1995, Team Nippon (as the Japanese are also called) had a streak of success and qualified for the 1998 FIBA World Championship, its first qualification in over 30 years. Coached by the Croat Željko Pavličević, the team played well but did not make it out of the primary round, where it lost its fourth-place battle against former semi-finalist New Zealand.

In the late 1990s, Japan played against more intense competition from the Middle East. Combined with many player absences from the team, Team Nippon struggled to win medals at the Asian Championships since its silver medal in 1997. At the 2008 event in their home country (Tokushima), the team finished at the 8th position and missed qualification for both the Beijing Olympic Tournament and qualification to the 2010 FIBA World Championship. At the 2009 FIBA Asia tournament the team sank to No. 10 position, its worst performance. This was partly due to the change of the head coach just before the tournament.

Overshadowed by the drawbacks at international competitions, Japan brought forth several of Asia's elite basketball players who competed in the NBA and in Europe. These players included Yuta Tabuse, J.R. Sakuragi, Takuya Kawamura, Takumi Ishizaki and others. However, they rarely played for the national team, which caused Team Japan to fall behind Asia's elite competition from Iran, South Korea, the Philippines and China.

To better the results, the American coach Thomas Wisman took over the management of the team in 2010 and made some considerable improvements. Wisman just came off a phenomenal year in the Japanese Basketball League (JBL) where he had led Tochigi Brex to its first and only national title. At the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup in 2010, Team Nippon was defeated by host Lebanon but exceeded expectations as it finished as runner-up. At the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship, the listed goal of the Final Four was missed as the team reached the 7th position out of 15. The team managed to defeat finalists Jordan but then lost to South Korea in the first playoff round and was defeated.

In March 2012, the Japan Association dismissed Wissmann and the country's coaching legend Kimikazu Suzuki took over the reins of the team. Suzuki, concurrently coaching the Aisin SeaHorses Mikawa had initial success as Team Nippon finished Runner-up at the next FIBA Asia Challenge tournament, which was held in Tokyo in September 2012. Aimed at the acquisition of a 2014 FIBA World Cup berth, the team, however, finished the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship in 9th place.

After Japan's missed opportunity to reach the World Cup, Team Nippon entered the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship, with the return of Yuta Tabuse and several other top players from the national team. They would win two of their three preliminary round games, to eventually make it all the way to the semi-finals of the competition for the first time since 1997. Although they would ultimately fall short in the round against the Philippines, and subsequently losing the third place game to Iran.

Two years later, Japan failed to make it into the quarter-finals at the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup, being defeated by South Korea in the qualification to the round. Following the event, Japan entered Asian Qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA World Cup, where they would amass an (8–5) record during their qualifying campaign to reach the finals. At the competition, Japan endured a disappointing tournament, losing all three of their group phase games, as well as their two classification matches to finish (0–5) to be eliminated.

Japan co-hosted the 2023 FIBA World Cup along with the Philippines and Indonesia. After losing their first game of the group phase against the eventually champions Germany, Akatsuki Japan obtained their first ever victory against a European opponent Finland 98–88. Following the historic win, Japan lost their final group game versus Australia, and sent to the classification round before exiting the tournament.

Japan played at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and were allocated in Group B. In the first game, they lost to Germany. In the second game, Japan was close to an upset win against hosts France, conceding the game only after overtime. Yuki Kawamura followed Kevin Durant and Luol Deng as the third player in Olympic history to have more than 25+ points, 5+ rebounds and 5+ assists. were eliminated after losing to Brazil on the final gameday.