Kaika: How Japanese cricket prepared for a moment of blossoming at Asian Games 2026

Japan women’s team will kickstart its Asian Games 2026 campaign against India on Friday. | Photo Credit: Instagram / japan_cricket

Alan Curr remembers V.V.S. Laxman’s 281.

He was at university in the UK when Laxman produced one of the all-time great Test innings against Australia at Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2001. International cricket was not nearly as accessible then as it is today, but Curr remembers following the scores, particularly as it came against England’s arch-rival.

Twenty-five years later, Curr found himself speaking to Laxman. Only this time, the Indian on the other end of the phone was asking him about cricket.

Laxman, coach of the Indian men’s cricket team travelling to the Asian Games, wanted to know what to expect in Japan. What were the facilities like? What was the square like? What was the weather doing?

“Basically he wanted to know what India could expect at the Asian Games,” Curr tells Sportstar.

For Curr, the Chief Operating Officer of the Japan Cricket Association, it was a slightly surreal moment. “Certainly in the two or three minutes leading up to the call, you’re like, wow, I saw this guy play a lot of cricket,” Curr says.

When Curr joined the Japanese Cricket Association (JCA) in 2014, he wasn’t a stranger to unusual encounters. He had previously conducted a cricket match at Everest base camp. But even he admits the idea that a cricketing legend would call him for tips ahead of a match against an Indian team might have seemed ludicrous.

“Even three weeks ago, if you’d mentioned to people in the Japan cricket community that India women’s team – the current ODI World Champions are going to come and play a game here, they wouldn’t have believed it,” Curr says.

🇯🇵 こちらは、9月に開催される第20回アジア競技大会 愛知・名古屋2026に出場する女子日本代表15名の選手です！🏏#japancricket#アジア競技大会#愛知名古屋2026#asiangames#aichinagoya2026pic.twitter.com/IXT53iX5Bm

— 一般社団法人 日本クリケット協会｜ JCA Japan Cricket Association (@CricketJapan) August 12, 2026

But it’s not fantasy anymore. On September 18 at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin in Japan’s Aichi prefecture, India’s women’s cricket team will begin its Asian Games campaign against Japan.

It’s beyond obvious just how much of a gulf there is between the two teams. India is a heavyweight in every possible sense. Its players earn in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts and endorsements. In Japan, the women’s game remains largely amateur. It didn’t even qualify for the women’s cricket tournament at the 2022 Asian Games. Yet when the Japanese players step onto the same field as some of the most recognisable professional cricketers in the world, there’s no nervousness, just anticipation.

“It is incredibly exciting. I have waited a decade to play in the Asian Games, so finally being able to compete on home soil is something truly special,” captain Mai Yanagida tells Sportstar.

Mai Yanagida was recently presented with a commemorative jersey to celebrate her 100th international appearance for Japan. | Photo Credit: Instagram / japan_cricket

Tickets please?

It’s a blockbuster encounter by Japanese standards, and it brings with it its own challenge, not just for reasons you’d expect. The JCA isn’t directly hosting the Indian team in Nagoya. That’s the Olympic Council of Asia’s responsibility, but the association is playing a supporting role. “For years, our biggest problem was finding players to come and play matches. Normally we’re desperately trying to encourage people to come to our ground. Whereas when you’ve got India coming, then the tickets sold out in about — it felt like about 20 minutes,” Curr says.

The interest has forced the tiny 20-member organisation to think beyond what happens inside the boundary: security, media zones, spectators and all the infrastructure surrounding a major sporting occasion. “We’re pretty good at organising cricket. But organising all the other stuff around it suddenly is sharply coming into focus. And we’re having to learn pretty quickly. It’s a big ask to try and turn something to a standard that people will probably expect for a Full Member nation,” he says.

But try, they will. Playing India at the Asian Games has a significance all its own. For the wider Japanese public, a Cricket World Cup qualifier may mean relatively little, explains Curr. Japan has hosted one before. The Asian Games, though, are immediately understandable. “The Asian Games is like the Olympics. It happens every four years. Everybody watches it; it’s one of those things that people really do get behind,” Curr says.

He saw that in Hangzhou three years ago, where Japan’s men made their Asian Games debut and beat Cambodia in their opening match. “That suddenly became national news. We had highlights shown on the major television channels! It’s like at the Olympics, when everyone starts following random sports, especially if there’s someone from your nation doing well in it,” he says.

Thirty-nine-year-old medium-pace bowler Kurumi Ota sees the home Games in much the same way. “I hope this will be an opportunity to raise awareness of cricket and inspire people watching the matches in person to dream of aiming for the Japanese national team in the future,” she tells Sportstar. “Hosting an event on the scale of the Asian Games in Japan is a rare and precious opportunity that may not come again anytime soon. I want to turn the energy and support that can only be felt at a home tournament into strength,” she says.

It’s a big opportunity, but to say the Japanese women’s team has it hard is probably an understatement the size of Mount Fuji.

There are just 14 clubs across the country. All of Japan’s women’s players have lives outside cricket. There are university students, office workers and teachers. Some players are based overseas. “Unfortunately, we are not full-time professional cricketers. Most of us balance cricket with a full-time job or school. It can be challenging to take leave for international tournaments and to find enough training time to catch up with higher-ranked nations whose players train full-time. It definitely requires a lot of personal sacrifices,” says captain Yanagida.

Ota knows that balancing act particularly well.

She works full-time as a systems engineer at Hitachi. Her employer allows her roughly two weeks off twice a year, which is when she can compete internationally. But even then, there have been times when Ota has had to choose. She stepped away from the sport for seven years between 2017 and 2023. The reason wasn’t injury or loss of form but work.

Ota had joined one of Japan’s largest core-system modernisation projects, a 10-year undertaking valued at several billion dollars. The scale of the project demanded her complete attention.

Cricket took a step back. Only after the system was successfully released was Ota able to return to the sport.

Despite knowing what they are up against, neither Ota nor Yanagida nor the rest of the Japanese team are approaching September 18 simply as a photo opportunity. “They go out, and they enjoy themselves. They play with a smile on their face. They play respectful cricket. But they take a lot of pride in wearing that Japan jersey,” Curr says.

Drawing India in the first match of the Asian Games competition was a bonus.

“All of them!” the 33-year-old Yanagida says when asked which Indian player she most wants to face. “I watch them on stream all the time. They are world-class players and a world-class team. As a batter, I’m really excited about facing Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana. I also hoped to play against Jemimah Rodrigues, but unfortunately she’s not playing. Hopefully our paths will cross another time,” says the off-spin bowling all-rounder who has scored three T20I fifties over the course of her career.

For Ota, one Indian player in particular she hopes to go up against.

Harmanpreet Kaur.

The two belong to the same generation, but their cricket careers have unfolded in almost completely different worlds. “She is of the same generation, has a long career, and plays at the world-class level, so I am really looking forward to actually playing against her,” Ota says.

Harmanpreet might have a mountain of experience that Ota doesn’t, but the Japanese player has accomplishments she’s proud of. The right-arm medium pacer has 26 international wickets in T20Is, holding at one point the record for most by a Japanese woman.

She also has something more tangible. Sixteen years ago, Ota was part of the Japanese women’s team that won bronze at Guangzhou in 2010, the first Asian Games at which cricket was contested.

Ota says she’s kept the medal safely on a shelf at her home, rarely bringing it out for others to see. In the build-up to Nagoya, though, members of the current Japan setup have started asking about it again. “The assistant coach and our social media manager have told me they’d like to see the bronze medal, which makes me really happy,” she says.

International competitions for Japan were extraordinarily rare then. Ota remembers them coming only once every four years, meaning years of practice could culminate in a single opportunity. “The practice we built up day by day finally paid off, and winning the bronze medal together with my teammates is my fondest memory. Including the time we spent working hard and sharing both the hardships and joys with my teammates, it remains a very precious memory to this day,” she says.

Perhaps nothing illustrates the change in Japanese cricket better than Ota’s memories of how she once trained. “When I first started playing cricket, we would sometimes practise under overpasses because there was nowhere else to play. Getting to a proper practice ground meant a six-hour round trip. Today there are international-standard grounds and grass outfields where we players can dive and slide without worrying about gravel,” she says.

Cricket communities have developed in Tokyo and elsewhere. Children can now encounter the sport in elementary school, and some have progressed to international competition. “Compared to when I began, I feel that not only the playing environment but also the starting age for players and the depth of talent capable of aiming for the global stage have expanded greatly,” Ota says.

Ota herself came to cricket almost accidentally. She had played basketball through junior high and high school before arriving at university wanting to try something new. She went to look at the cricket club.

What she saw stuck with her.

“There was this senior student who was practising her bowling alone at night, illuminated only by the faint light from a building. I thought that looked so cool,” Ota remembers.

She later discovered that the bowler was a member of the Japanese national team. Ota had never bowled before. The unfamiliarity became part of the attraction. “I wanted to learn to take a run-up and send the ball towards the wicket the way I had seen that senior player do. That’s how I fell in love with the game,” she says.

Yanagida’s introduction was similarly rooted in another sport. She joined the cricket club while studying at university in Tokyo after previously playing softball. “I got into cricket very quickly because the feeling of hitting the ball was even better than in softball,” she says.

The crossover is not unusual. It’s also what gives Curr reason to believe cricket can grow in Japan.

“Almost everyone coming through the Japanese school system has some familiarity with baseball. Softball provides a similar sporting foundation for many women. You can see a lot of that background visible in our teams fielding and throwing,” he says.

Even the venue where Japan will take on India is a refurbished baseball ground.

But while cricket isn’t entirely unfamiliar, the challenge for Japanese cricket has always been giving people the first opportunity to encounter the game.

‘We have a cricket team?’

Many Japanese people still don’t know their country has a cricket team. “Although awareness is growing, most people are still genuinely surprised to hear that Japan has a national cricket team. Once I explain how it’s not that different from baseball, though, people are very curious,” Yanagida says.

Ota has experienced something similar.

People are initially surprised when she tells them she plays international cricket. Then they begin asking when the next tournament is and wishing her luck.

“Sparked by these conversations, some people actually came all the way to the venue to support us when there was a match in Japan. I am so happy to spark interest in people who didn’t know about cricket and gain their support,” she says.

It is precisely the process Japan Cricket hopes the Asian Games can accelerate.

There is a distinctly Japanese quality to the way Curr talks about the association’s development: the emphasis on long-term planning. Japan Cricket works through five-year strategies that sit inside a broader 20-year plan. The current five-year strategy is called Kaika, which Curr describes as a moment of blossoming or flourishing, like the arrival of the country’s cherry blossoms.

Its objectives extend well beyond results.

The association wants cricket to become recognised as a flourishing sport in Japan, attracting new fans, participants and partners, competing internationally, creating social value and providing professional opportunities. “This means better facilities, role models, digital marketing and school engagement. It means developing not only players but coaches, commentators, curators and others who can create a functioning cricket ecosystem. You need to remember what you want the future to look like, and then everything you do can direct you that way,” Curr says.

The growth is particularly visible in the men’s team. The Under-19 side qualified twice for the U-19 World Cup, in 2019 and last year. A growing number of players of Japanese heritage living overseas, particularly in Australia and England, also began contacting the JCA. Curr says he gets a call every week or so from an interested player. Several are part of the men’s team which will be competing at the Asian Games.

The JCA itself has grown. While a 20-staff federation might seem tiny in comparison to India, Curr reckons the association had seven full-time staff at one point. Japan Cricket has gone from an organisation with a recognisable season and off-season to one that operates throughout the year. “There aren’t really quiet periods any more,” Curr says.

On September 18, when Mai Yanagida walks out to the toss alongside Harmanpreet Kaur, it’s going to be the loudest it’s ever been.

And there are the less tangible bonuses, of course. “I mean, how often do you get to say you had V.V.S Laxman talk to you about cricket?” says Curr.