Introducing Japan’s new call-ups for the Nations Championship
Eddie Jones has named three uncapped players in Japan’s 36-man Nations Championship squad for a demanding schedule of four away games this month.
The Brave Blossoms sit fifth in the Southern Hemisphere table after their resounding win over Italy was followed up with a narrow defeat to Ireland in Australia and a heavy loss against France in Tokyo.
Following a Pacific Nations Cup win and a disappointing loss to Fiji in their centenary fixture two weeks ago, Japan has arrived in Cardiff to launch their end-of-year tour with less than a year until the World Cup in Australia.
Japan faces Wales on Saturday with games to follow against England and Scotland and a further fixture on the finals weekend at Twickenham against their equivalently ranked team in the Northern Hemisphere table.
RugbyJP.com has profiled the new faces in tinkerman Jones' final tour selection for the year.
Miu Austin Moriyama (23)
Club: Urayasu D-Rocks
Height/Weight: 181cm/107kg
Position: FL/NO8
Born: Tokyo
Loose-forward Miu Austin Moriyama is the only uncapped forward in the Japan squad.
Moriyama, who has a Japanese mother and Nigerian father, started playing rugby in the first year of junior high school at Nerima Rugby School in Tokyo.
He served as vice-captain in his fourth and final year at Toyo University and was already on Jones’ radar.
Moriyama played for Jones’ u23 Japan team in Australia last year and represented the Japan XV team against a New Zealand student national team.
Former England and British and Irish Lions prop Graham Rowntree landed the coveted signature of the highly-rated flanker amid intense interest from a host of top-flight sides.
He made his League one debut against Saitama Wild Knights in May with hulking Japan star Ben Gunter his opposite number at openside flanker.
The newcomer, who was named in a provisional 55-man Japan national team squad at the start of the year, has won all three of his club games and is expected to thrive in the Brave Blossoms environment.
Riku Kitahara (27)
Club: Honda Heat
Height/Weight: 170cm/78kg
Position: Fly-half
Born: Tokyo
Former Kokugakuin Kugayama High School captain Riku Kitahara’s road to the national team saw him take an unconventional path.
The 27-year-old moved to New Zealand as a teenager to study at the University of Otago from 2017-2021.
After graduating he returned home to join division two side Hino Red Dolphins for the inaugural League One season in 2022.
Kitahara made 13 appearances, scoring 37 points, for the Tokyo-based team before his surprise departure in 2024 to join semi-professional side AZ-COM Maruwa MOMOTARO'S who then played in what is effectively the fourth tier in Japan.
The well-travelled playmaker led the club to the Top East League Group A title in his one season outside of Japan's top three divisions in the League One pyramid.
Former Italy head coach Kieran Crowley recruited Kitahara to Honda to join a squad boasting the likes of Fiji captain Tevita Ikanivere, Springboks stalwart Franco Mostert and Los Pumas star Pablo Matera.
He started 11 out of the club’s 18 games last season, playing ahead of ex-Saracens fly-half Manu Vunipola, injury-plagued Hayata Nakao and South African centre Dawid Kellerman who has caught the eye as a back-up 10.
Honda finished in eighth-place, their best campaign in the League One era as they finished just five points off a top-six play-off berth.
Kitahara is likely to be an understudy to Toyota Verblitz fly-half Shinya Komura, who has three caps off the bench, during the Nations Championship but will get minutes as one of only two dedicated pivots in their 36-man group.
Riku Tokito (23)
Club: Toshiba Brave Lupus
Height/Weight: 184cm / 90kg
Position: Centre
Born: Kagoshima
Former sevens player Riku Tokito, 23, is yet to play a professional 15-man game but has been drafted in by Eddie Jones for the resumption of the Nations Championship.
The Fukuoka Institute of Technology graduate, who is the least experienced of Japan’s new call-ups, joined two-time League One champions Toshiba in February.
He trained with players such as Richie Mo’unga, Shannon Frizell and high-quality centres Rob Thompson and Seta Tamanivalu in his first season in Fuchu.
Tokito played for Japan at the Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Series in August as he marked his debut with a try before helping his country win bronze at the Asia Games in Nagoya last month.
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