Japan has hosted many high-profile competitions in the past – the FIVB Volleyball World League, FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix, FIVB Volleyball World Grand Champions Cups, FIVB Volleyball World Cups, Men’s and Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments. In 2018, Japan will have an unprecedented fifth-time hosting of the FIVB’s premier volleyball event – the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship, which will take place from September 29 to October 20.
The 2018 Women’s World Championship will be the 18th edition of the competition, which was first played in 1952 in Moscow, in what was then the Soviet Union.
The world’s best 24 teams will be in Japan following a qualifying process, which started in 2016. The 24 countries competing in the 2018 FIVB Women’s World Championship are split according to the following vacancies: South America (two), Asia (five), Europe (eight), Africa (two) and NORCECA (seven including defending champions USA).
The nations, which have previously hosted the competition, are Japan (five times), the Soviet Union (three times), Brazil (twice), France, Bulgaria, Mexico, Peru, Czechoslovakia, China, Germany and Italy.
Russia are the most successful nation in the history of the Women’s World Championship. As both Russia and the Soviet Union they have won a total of seven titles. The country topped the podium in 2006 and 2010, while they took the crown in 1952, 1956, 1960, 1970 and 1990 as the Soviet Union. They are followed by Japan (1962, 1967, 1974), Cuba (1978, 1994, 1998) with three titles, China with two titles (1982, 1986), Italy with one title (2002).
The 2018 Women’s World Championship will follow on from the highly successful 2014 edition in Italy, where the United States got their first-ever gold medal finish after finishing with two silver medals (1967, 2002) and two bronze medals (1982, 1990).