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Canada vs United States 2014 World Championship Gold Medal Game 2018 Japan Lacrosse Roster
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2018 Japan Lacrosse Roster Released

The 2018 Japan Lacrosse Roster has been released on the JLA website, and judging by the names included, it’s a really solid roster that should get through their pool group play (against Uganda and Bulgaria) with relative ease. Japan is looking to regain their Blue Division status for 2022, and the only way to do that is to win their way into the Top 6 spots in 2018.

See below for the full 2018 Japan Lacrosse Roster, and check out our MEGA Post for the rosters of all the teams!

2018 Japan Lacrosse Roster

Here is the format for the roster:
Number – POSITION – Name – CLUB TEAM

1 – ATTACK – Hiroki Ito – VIKINGS
3 – ATTACK – Mikisuke Sekine – FALCONS
6 – ATTACK – Satoshi Seike – WOLVES
7 – ATTACK – Ken Ikegawa – STEALERS
8 – MID – Shigehiro Ohba – FALCONS
10 – MID – Jun Motoshita – FALCONS
11 – MID – Hiroki Kanaya -Chiba University
12 – MID – Gaku Iwano – STEALERS
13 – MID – Tatsuki Hashimoto – FALCONS
22 – MID – Seiya Natsume – FALCONS
44 – MID – Ryu Matsushita – FALCONS
45 – MID – Tomoki Umehara – FALCONS
18 – DEF – Isao Yoshida – STEALERS
19 – DEF – Yuki Mizuta – FALCONS
20 – DEF – Dan Kanayama – FALCONS
26 – DEF – Yuta Tanishima – VIKINGS
27 – DEF – Kota Hatakeyama – FALCONS
2 – GOALIE – Keisuke Ando – STEALERS
42 – GOALIE – Shunsuke Hattori – OPEC VORTEX
21 – MID – Kinori Sugihara Rosnow – ADVANCE-HANGLOOSE & Oberlin College
33 – F/O – Chris Jinno – ADVANCE-HANGLOOSE
4 – ATTACK – Kohta Kurashima – STEALERS
9 – ATTACK – Wataru Tsugu – FALCONS
16 – MID – Yasuteru Hosoume – STEALERS
24 – DEF – Yujiro Sunagawa – FALCONS
43 – DEF – Hisatoshi Suzuki -STEALERS
98 – DEF – Ryota Fukui -Kwansei Gakuin University

You’ll notice there are 27 guys on the list, and the FIL limits a team to 23-men before the tourney starts. 4 of these players will end up being alternates, or filling in for guys who get hurt in the lead up to the event. It can happen, and it makes sense to have 4 players there to bail out pre-tournament injuries, see how it all works, and get prepped for 2022.

You’ll also notice there are a lot of players from the FALCONS club, and this makes sense as it is the traditional powerhouse club in Japan. Just to give you some perspective, the Falcons beat an NCAA D1 team in fall ball so these guys can clearly play some very serious lacrosse!  STEALERS (love that name) have also come a long way, especially in recent years, and are fueled by young emerging stars of Japanese lacrosse. There are a couple of other clubs represented as well, so you know the Japanese club scene is doing well.

Japan should be competitive this year, and I can’t wait to see what they do. Hidden ball tricks? MAYBE…

2006

2010!

Announcers say it’s the first time it’s ever happened, but that’s clearly not true. See above video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61qK90djXrc

I didn’t see one in 2014, but let’s hope it comes back this year! We’ll get it on video.