Between the eight qualified teams for the quarter-finals of the 2024 IHF Women’s Youth World Championship, Japan are the only non-European side to make it into the knockout phase of the world handball flagship competition at this age category.

That ensures that Japan, the reigning Asian champions from last summer, made it for the quarter-finals for the first time since 2012 and will have the chance to secure their best-ever performance since the inaugural edition of the 2024 IHF Women’s Youth World Championship, when they finished on the seventh place.

The Asian side has delivered some fantastic performances on the way. First, they drew against their rivals, the Republic of Korea, 27:27, in a match where they had the chance to win, but missed an open-goal shot in the last seconds. 

Then, they delivered a fantastic win against the Netherlands, 31:27, in the final match of the preliminary round, doubling down with another clear win against Brazil, 30:19. Therefore, the Asian champions needed a win against France to secure the first place in Group II of the main round.

However, they went agonisingly close to drop another bombshell, leading after 46 minutes, 19:18, then losing the lead, cutting the gap to a single goal, 24:25, with 74 seconds left in the match, only to concede a 24:26 loss, ending up on the second place in the standings.

"We are not unhappy after this loss because we are proud of our performance," said goalkeeper Hirari Fujiwara, who had seven saves, for a 35% saving efficiency in this match.

In fact, all the three Japan goalkeepers – Fujiwara, Hana Osaki and Karen Sekiguchi – made saves against France, finishing with 14 saves between them and an overall efficiency of 35%, considered good between the coaching goalkeepers in modern handball.

Japan’s goalkeeping has been excellent in this competition so far, with Fujiwara, Osaki and Sekiguchi combining for 73 saves, the largest number at this stage in the competition, for a 40.3% saving efficiency, second only to Denmark and the Netherlands.

"We have a very good chemistry among the three goalkeepers in our team, that's very clear. And we have different personalities on the court so we complement each other. My strong point is the long distance shots, while the others are better at close shots, for example," says Fujiwara, seconded by her goalkeeping coach, Masako Komatsu, who translated the interview: “"the key is our goalkeeper coach is very good”.

But goalkeeping is not the only strong point for Japan, a team which has been on the rise at all levels. Just last December, Japan delivered a fantastic performance at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship, when they beat Denmark for the first time in history, in Herning, on Denmark’s home court.

"European teams have a really high level, but us, Japan, the youth, junior and senior teams, are growing step by step. It gives us hope that we can do it too in the future, our generation can be very good," adds the Japan goalkeeper.

Just two years ago, at North Macedonia 2022, the Republic of Korea became the first non-European team to secure the title at the IHF Women’s Youth World Championship, with a dominating performance, winning every match, including seven against European sides.

Japan will now face Spain in the quarter-finals, a side which has won five matches in a row and looked hard to stop. But with the roaming defence, the fast attack and some more saves from the goalkeeping trio of Fujiwara, Osaki and Sekiguchi, Japan might just throw another surprise in the spanners.

What’s clear, though, is that Japan’s future looks bright, with the development in women’s handball being on par with the men’s one, where the senior national team qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, delivering excellent performances against good sides like Croatia and Slovenia, where they lost by a single goal.