Host nation Japan are joined by the three best-ranked teams from the Asian Continental Championship, plus (according to the FIVB World Rankings, as of 4 January 2012) the two best-ranked teams from Confédération Européenne de Volleyball (CEV) that did not qualify in the European qualification tournament, the best-ranked team from North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) that did not qualify in the NORCECA qualification tournament, and the best-ranked team from Confederación Sudamericana de Voleibol (CSV) or Confédération Africaine de Volleyball (CAVB) that did not qualify in the respective qualification tournament.
The FIVB then conducted an investigation into whether the Japanese women's team deliberately lost against Serbia[6] before concluding that there was no evidence to prove the existence of match fixing.
For the last game, the qualification outcome could have fallen into one of three scenarios: In the 1st set, Japan took an 8–5 lead at the first technical time-out.
[9] Serbia's win also meant that they qualified ahead of Thailand, which had hoped to reach the Olympics for the first time.
[10] Thai captain, Wilavan Apinyapong, was disappointed but said that the Olympic Games remained their ultimate dream.
[7] The FIVB also said that it stood firmly against match fixing and would revise the system of future Olympics qualifiers to reduce even further the possibility of any manipulation.
[12] Thai social media sites were bombarded with messages expressing dissatisfaction over the judgement and a Japanese volleyball official insisted that allegations of match manipulation were unfounded.