\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788229451_787_6.jpg\")
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\n
\nJapan’s Rui Hachimura shoots a three-pointer during a Basketball World Cup Asian qualifying game against Qatar in Tokyo on Aug. 31, 2026. (Kyodo) <\/p>\n
\n TOKYO (Kyodo) — Rui Hachimura poured in a game-high 30 points as Japan cruised to a 123-70 win over Qatar in the second phase of Asian qualifying for the 2027 Basketball World Cup on Monday.
\n<\/p>\n
\n Coming off a 29-point outburst away to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, the Los Angeles Clippers forward was once again virtually unstoppable for head coach Dai Oketani’s squad at Toyota Arena Tokyo.
\n<\/p>\n
\n Hachimura connected on six of his eight three-point attempts and finished with 9-from-15 shooting from the field in 29 minutes
\n<\/p>\n
\n Akatsuki Japan led by 18 at the end of the first quarter and was never troubled the rest of the way, creating high-percentage shots with quick ball movement against the host of next year’s World Cup.
\n<\/p>\n
\n Keisei Tominaga contributed 23 points, while Yuta Watanabe added 12 off the bench in his first appearance of the current qualifying window.
\n<\/p>\n
\n “It was a lot of fun,” said Hachimura, who rejoined the national team this month for the first time since the 2024 Paris Olympics.
\n<\/p>\n
\n “I’m happy to play in Japan again after such a long time, and I’m truly glad we could get the win in front of everyone.”
\n<\/p>\n
\n With records from the first qualifying phase carrying over, Japan improved to six wins and two losses in Group F.
\n<\/p>\n
\n The second phase of Asian qualifying features 12 teams divided into two groups, competing in a home-and-away format. With Qatar already through as host, seven other teams from Asia and Oceania will advance to the World Cup.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Japan’s Rui Hachimura shoots a three-pointer during a Basketball World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,186,2795,27409,81,5174,1050,187,52,257],"class_list":["post-83418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tokyo","tag-japan","tag-latest-articles","tag-more-sports-news","tag-oceania","tag-qatar","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-sports","tag-the-mainichi","tag-tokyo","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}