World Cup Members Announced: 18 Japanese National Team Players Selected, from University Students to World Champions!

The Japan YOU.FO Association has selected the Japanese national team athletes for the 'YOU.FO World Cup 2026,' to be held in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, China, from Wednesday, July 8th to Monday, July 13th, 2026.

The Japanese national team will compete in the tournament aiming for victory in the world championship, while also embodying the appeal of the new sport of YOU.FO and promoting Japanese YOU.FO to the world.

Event Overview

Tournament Name: YOU.FO World Cup 2026 Dates: Wednesday, July 8th – Monday, July 13th, 2026 Location: Ya'an, Sichuan Province, China

Last year's Tokyo World Cup 2025

Japan National Team Member List

Yohei Ando Sakuya Ito Yuuto Uchida (First time) Shinji Kurita Daiki Kobayashi Natsuko Suzuki Misa Suzuyama (First time) Genta Sekine Mayu Sekine Chihiro Takagi Katsuaki Takizawa Ka Chun Ip Mei Fujioka (First time) Kosuke Fujiwara Goro Hosono (First time) Takashi Horiuchi Himeko Matsuoka Yuki Mikazuki

The 18 members will be organized into four teams to compete in this tournament. Additionally, Yuki Honda, a board member of the Japan YOU.FO Association, will be on-site as an official tournament moderator, participating in tournament operations and international communication.

Background

The Japan YOU.FO Association has been conducting selections for the Japanese national team for the 'YOU.FO World Cup 2026' since March 2026.

The selection process comprehensively evaluated not only athletic ability but also contributions to YOU.FO's promotion, communication skills, attitude as a representative, and the preparation and motivation for competing in an international tournament.

The Japanese national team is not just selected based on athletic performance; they are representatives of Japan on the international stage who spread and embody the values of YOU.FO. The 18 members selected this time will challenge the world championship, leveraging their individual personalities and strengths.

Characteristics of the Japan National Team

This year's national team features a diverse lineup, from players with a track record in international competitions to those who have newly made the team through domestic tournaments.

The team includes players challenging the world again as world and Asian champions, a player competing in the World Cup for the fourth consecutive year, a current university student balancing academics and competition, and players promoting the sport's appeal through social media, each with a different story.

How will a new sport spread in Japan, and what kind of athletes will challenge the world? This year's team is noteworthy not only for its growth as a competitive sport but also from the perspectives of young people's challenges, international competition experience, and communication by the players themselves.

Comment from the Japan YOU.FO Association

In this selection process, we emphasized not only athletic ability but also the desire to spread YOU.FO, a cooperative attitude with teammates, and the determination to stand on the world stage as a representative of Japan.

We expect the players not only to aim for victory but also to communicate the appeal of YOU.FO, fair play in the Japanese style, and teamwork to the world. As an association, we will proceed with strengthening activities for the tournament and domestic promotional activities in an integrated manner.

Future Prospects

The Japanese national team will conduct domestic training sessions and camps to improve their athletic ability and teamwork ahead of the 'YOU.FO World Cup 2026' in July 2026.

We will also work on further promoting YOU.FO through the Y-League, domestic tournaments, trial sessions, and collaborations with local communities and educational institutions.

We are always open to consultations for individual interviews with players and association staff, filming of practice sessions, coverage of national team activities, and media projects that include a YOU.FO experience.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ What is YOU.FO ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ YOU.FO Ringcross is a team sport developed in the Netherlands where players aim to score by passing a ring with a stick. It features a fair competitive culture that prohibits physical contact and is based on self-judging, making it enjoyable for all ages and genders. In addition to its athletic nature that requires speed, strategy, and spatial awareness, it is gaining popularity mainly in Europe and Asia as a 'connecting sport' that emphasizes trust and cooperation between people.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Contact for this matter ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ We are always available for consultations, including interviews with players and association staff. We also welcome inquiries about introducing YOU.FO to projects, events, education, programs, etc. We can provide materials and arrange for trial opportunities, so please feel free to contact us.

Japan YOU.FO Association (Public Relations) [email protected] Instagram: @youfo_japan HP: https://youfo.or.jp