Tokyo, March 29, 2006: Japanese champions Sakai Blazers provide five of the 22 members on Japan's training squad at the start of a busy international year.
The five include V.League MVP Shinya Chiba and Rookie of the Year Yusuke Ishijima.
Head coach Tatsuya Ueta, who was joined by all 22 players at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday, has particularly high hopes for Ishijima.
Aged 22, the former Tsukuba University captain packs plenty of power in his 1.97-metre, 102-kg frame.
"Ishijima is a newcomer from Sakai Blazers and has good potential," Ueta said of the young wing spiker.
"I will select the players for the World League from this group, and then look at the situation again after that.
"We want to play our best in the World League, but the World Championships in November are the biggest goal this year. It is impossible to play at your maximum level all the time, so we have to be able to adjust match by match."
Japan will play Serbia and Montenegro, United States and Poland in the World League Pool A in July and August, and have been drawn with Poland again in the World Championships Pool A, along with Argentina, China, Egypt and Puerto Rico.
Like all the Japanese players, Ishijima will be aiming for a prized spot on the World Championships roster, especially as Japan's first-round group is based in his home prefecture of Saitama.
Japan's squad of 22 is: Masaji Ogino (Suntory Sunbirds), Yu Koshikawa (Suntory Sunbirds), Yusuke Ishijima (Sakai Blazers), Marcos Sugiyama (Sakai Blazers), Shinya Chiba (Sakai Blazers), Hiroyuki Kai (Asahi-Kasei Sparkids), Ryuji Naohiro (JT Thunders), Takahiro Yamamoto (Panasonic Panthers), Kyohei Shibata (Toray Arrows), Yohei Takasugi (Toray Arrows), Kota Yamamura (Suntory Sunbirds), Nobuharu Saito (Toray Arrows), Yoshihiko Matsumoto (NEC Blue Rockets), Nobuhiro Ito (Sakai Blazers), Kenji Onoue (JT Thunders), Yoshifumi Suzuki (Suntory Sunbirds), Kosuke Tomonaga (Toyota-Gosei Trefuerza), Yuta Abe (Toray Arrows), Keisuke Kurihara (Suntory Sunbirds), Katsutoshi Tsumagari (Suntory Sunbirds), Akira Masuno (Sakai Blazers), Osamu Tanabe (Toray Arrows).
