Having two foreigners as the highest scorers of the Japanese Women’s League of Volleyball is not a source of pride for Japan, but is aligned with the country’s ambitions for the sport.
The goal is bold. The organizers of the tournament, officially called SV.league, want to make it the most competitive of the sport in the world by 2030.
The idea is to increase the presence of large international athletes, interested in repeating the steps of Italian Silvia Nwakalor and Brazilian Rosamaria Montibeller, highlights of the current season.
With 793 points, the European is the highest scorer of the current edition, playing for Toray Arrows, while Catarinense, with 727, acting for the dense, is the second of the ranking.
Season 2024/25 marks the beginning of a new era in Japanese courts, with more flexible rules for foreigners, breaking a paradigm in the country for the development of the sport.
“In any league, the more diversity of game styles, the more you have to adapt to the characteristic of each player, created and polite in a different school of volleyball. This diversity of nationalities within the same championship brings this learning to all athletes,” Rosamaria told the Sheet.
Silver with Brazil at the Tokyo-2020 Games, held in 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and bronze at Paris-2024 games, the opposite is in its second year in the Asian country.
His decision to change Italy for Japan had as one of the motivations the search for a technical evolution. Rosa considers the Japanese very skilled: “They put the ball where they want.”
Tactical awareness to attack and defend is another feature that went to seek. “They have a differentiated game view.”
There was a time when Japan was recognized as one of the largest powers of world volleyball, especially from the 1960s, when he hosted the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964, and managed to form competitive teams in both male and female.
Third place in the general staff of that edition, the Asian nation won two podiums with volleyball, the bronze of men and the gold of women.
In the following decades, however, Japan failed to develop its domestic league by choosing to create a kind of market reserve for its athletes and limit the presence of foreigners.
It was in this scenario that Daido Life Sv.league, who organizes the men’s and women’s championships in the country, launched the project described as “Renaissance”.
With restructuring, the main change was the opening for foreigners. Before, each club could have only one player from abroad in its cast. Now, there are no more registration limits, and the team can have up to two athletes from outside Japan at the same time, with an extra place for non -Japanese Asians.
Considering women’s and men’s leagues, there are players from 25 countries, including Japan.
In the 2024/25 season, ongoing since October, the men’s dispute brings together ten teams, and the competition of women has 14.
The “Renaissance” process also involves an attempt to change the relationship with the companies that sponsor and control the teams. Most athletes have a contract with these companies, in which not only play volleyball.
“It’s like a contract similar to CLT. In addition to playing, they do services on behalf of the company,” said Rosamaria, who is an exception. “I have independent professional athlete contract. The other girls are employees of the company that controls the team.”
The goal of SV.League is that the model of Rosamaria is the rule, not the exception, until 2027. Thus, the clubs would be better able to attract stars of the sport.
