One of their greatest successes was at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, when they defeated the heavily favored Soviet Union on the way to the gold medal.

In the 2012 Olympics, Japan had been placed on Group A with Russian Federation, Italy, Dominican Republic, the host Great Britain and Algeria.

Saori Kimura and Yukiko Ebata each scored 33 points in this thrilling game in which China were beaten by 3–2.

The other teams in their group in Tokyo were Kenya, Serbia, Brazil, Korea and the Dominican Republic.

[11] They beat Kenya in their first match in straight sets[12] and lost against Serbia, Brazil, Korea and the Dominican Republic which caused them to miss the qualification for the quarterfinals.