The Japanese quartet of Daiki Ito, Reruhi Shimizu, Noriaki Kasai and Taku Takeuchi took third place in a shortened season-opening World Cup event on Saturday.
Japan scored 523.6 points in the event that was cut to one round of jumps due to strong wind, finishing behind winner Slovenia (540.46) and Germany (528.3).
It was Japan's first podium finish since Nov. 2011.
"The conditions were difficult but I got the absolute minimum done," said Takeuchi, who jumped 133.5 meters and had the highest points score of the fourth jumpers, moving Japan up from fifth spot.
"I think if I can deliver my kind of jumps then there is a chance I could even win in the individual events."