Japan soared to a historic 15-10 win over Great Britain to advance to the semifinals at The World Games 2025 in the women’s sixes competition, guaranteeing a first-ever top-four finish at a senior women’s championship.
Japan finished in sixth place at the last edition of The World Games in 2022 and will now play in the medal round. In senior women’s field, Japan has finished as high as fifth place twice.
Japan continues its meteoric rise in international lacrosse, with its women’s program claiming its first ever medal, bronze, at the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship. The World Games has also been a successful endeavor for Japan with the men’s program claiming its first ever medal in 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama with a bronze in sixes competition.
“Great Britain is a team we always looked up to, so we are really really excited to win against them,” said Japan goalkeeper Runa Fujita. “Since we were ranked fifth in the previous women’s championship, Great Britain was a team we had to beat to win a medal, so that’s why we were really emotional.”
“I’m just really happy that we came up with the win,” added Negai Nakazawa through a translator. “Great Britain is one of the top four teams and we’ve always looked up to those top four teams. I think this win is a big win for Japan towards the Olympics as well.”
Japan trailed early and into the second quarter, but rallied with a stifling defensive approach and intricate passing play to unlock Great Britain’s tightly wound and physical defense. The team’s attackers also found creative finishes from acute angles to punish the narrow British setup.
“Compared to 2022, we knew that the set offense was going to be a big part of beating these top teams,” said Nakazawa. “We worked on that and the combination within the set offense is something we think has gotten better the last few years.”
“We were preparing for the fastbreaks and they are really good at transition and we knew that,” added Fujita. “So we tried to come back earlier than before to have good defense.”
A key three goal stretch on the power play in the second quarter boosted Japan’s confidence, and it never relinquished the lead the rest of the way.
Great Britain rallied in the third quarter and got within two, but Japan ripped off another crucial three-goal run keyed with quick transition goals of its own by Nene Kawai and Kokoro Nakazawa.
After allowing five goals in the first 10 minutes, Japan let in just one goal for the next 20 minutes of action, including a strong stretch to start the fourth quarter when a British goal to cut the lead to three would have added some pressure.
Fujita made 11 saves and finished with a save percentage above 50%.
The attacking output was spread among Kokoro and Negai Nakazawa, and Monica Jones, with the seven points from Jones leading the team. Jones’ two second quarter goals on Japan’s left side were crucial in reversing the early scoreline.
Dylan Whittington made 13 saves for Great Britain in defeat and Olivia Wimpenny turned in an impressive six-point outing.
Japan will face the United States in the first semifinal at 1 p.m. on Saturday before the medal round on Monday. Great Britain will take on Czechia for fifth place on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
“It’s our first time, but we have to win a medal – winning a medal changes everything,” said Fujita. “It would be the first medal for Japan, so if we get one it will change everything for the Japanese lacrosse community.”
“We still have two more games to go, so we want to focus on these two games and hopefully coming up with a medal in the end,” added Negai Nakazawa.
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Monika Jones
5 goals, 71% shooting percentage, 2 assists
