A win against Qatar is all that stands between Japan and an Asia championship semifinal place, and with Thursday's winner booking a place in the Rio 2016 pre-Olympic qualifying tournament, it will be a very important day for basketball in Japan.
Qatar has had an up-and-down tournament in Changsha, having lost three games in the first two stages of the tournament. The Gulf-based squad was beaten 72-64 by Chinese Taipei 72-64 in the preliminary round, and in the second round lost to Jordan 84-73 and China 89-65.
These inconsistent performances by Qatar — a team that has not finished better than sixth in the past four Asian tournaments and is currently ranked one place below Japan — mean the quarterfinal presents an excellent opportunity for Kenji Hasegawa's team to reach Asia's final four for the first time since 1997.