Japan junior national baseball team

Despite being a key presence on the international baseball stage, Japan has never had significant success at junior (18-and-under) level competition. They had only claimed two Silver Medals at the Junior World Championships, in 1984 and 2004 before winning Silvers in 2013 and 2015 and a Bronze in 2017, showing some strides. Then they got their first Gold in the 2023 U-18 Baseball World Cup. Yu Darvish and Hideaki Wakui both played on the 2004 team and Yuki Matsui was with the 2013 squad.