Making its fifth-ever appearance at the FIBA World Cup, Japan will dispatch arguably its best-ever squad on the global stage.
While rough challenges are awaiting the team, which will face some of the world's elites in the 32-nation tourney in China, the Akatsuki Five are giving their home fans unprecedented high expectations because of the talent that the nation hasn't previously seen.
Japan will take on Turkey (17th in the FIBA rankings), the Czech Republic (24) and the United States (1) in that order in Group E of the round-robin first round at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. The top two teams in each of the eight groups will advance to another four-team group second round, from which the best two teams will proceed to the eight-team knockout round.