Japan finished the preliminary phase of the 2026 men's Volleyball Nations League unbeaten: in Osaka they beat Canada 3-2 (18-25, 24-26, 29-27, 25-19, 15-11), coming back from two sets down to book their spot in the Finals in Macao, China, starting on 29 July.
The win takes Laurent Tillie's side to 10 victories from 10 matches, six of them decided in the fifth set. Early in the opening set, outside hitter and captain Yuki Ishikawa — regarded as the best spiker in VNL history — passed the 1,000 career kill mark in the competition (1,004 according to official stats), extending his all-time record.
Japan were led by outside hitter Tatsunori Otsuka, the match's top scorer with 18 points, followed by opposite Kento Miyaura with 15, outside Shoma Tomita with 14 and middle blocker Larry Ik Evbade-Dan with 12. The hosts made the difference in unforced errors (24-28), aces (4-2) and spike kills (74-66) in front of 7,377 fans.
