Japanese women's volleyball has been given a golden opportunity to resurrect its half-forgotten Olympic glory with a youthful squad led by a passionate head coach.
The team is building up for the Games in an enthusiastic atmosphere, unseen in recent memory, after Japan booked a ticket to Athens by winning a qualifying tournament in May, for its first Olympic appearance in eight years.
Twenty-eight years have passed since the Japanese women last won the gold in Olympic volleyball in Montreal, to match the memorable feat by the "Oriental Witches" at the 1964 Tokyo Games.