Japan has made a breakthrough at the Worlds!

Although only going 2-3 in the pool round, and squeaking ahead of Germany through the head-to-head tie-breaker rule, they've made the most of their Worlds experience and come through it all in 5th place, which will be their World Ranking in the next update, which I believe effectively comes in to place tomorrow.

At the 2003 Oceania Zonal Championships the Japanese had some close games, but couldn't make the breakthrough to the winning side.  They were similarly winless at the 2004 Super Series Down Under which was a four-team-triple-round-robin tournament between AUS, NZL, JAP, and GBR.

At the 2004 Paralympic Games, Australia needed an overtime period to secure a win over Japan 48-47 in the pool round, but that was as close as the Japanese got to a win in Athens.

The only Japanese wins at the 2005 Oceania Zonals was against the world #18 ranked team from South Africa.

There's got to be a lot of happy people in the land of the rising sun tonight!