Yūji Nishida

Nishida first started volleyball due to his elder sister and brother and joined the same team as his brother 'Daian Beetles'. He poured all his energy in practicing with the team that by the second year he was already playing games and becoming regular in the third year.

While being fascinated by the Olympics, his attention was caught by Kunihiro Shimizu, a left handed opposite like him which instigated him to want to be like Shimizu and compete in the Olympics.

In his fourth year of elementary school, Nishida achieved a huge goal of winning the 29th All Japan Volleyball Tournament in Mie Prefecture.

In sixth year of elementary school, he became the captain and led the team to win the President's Cup of Mie Prefecture Club Volleyball Federation.

After graduation, he went to a local junior high (middle school) which was not a powerhouse and grew even more.

Nishida had the opportunity to participate in the Kaisei High School volleyball club practice in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture as he was a regular player since freshman year. His play there caught the attention of Masanobu Onishi, the volleyball team manager at that time and Katsunari Fujita, the head of the team. In June of the same year, he joined the junior high school club team 'NFO Ocean Star', recommended by Fujita.

In March 2013, Nishida was selected for the U-14 team in the Hokusei district of Mie Prefecture. In August of the same year, he was selected for the Mie Prefecture selection team and competed from all over Japan in the Junior Olympic cup held in December.

He chose to decline the powerhouses in his prefectures and chose to go to Kaisei High School which had never been to nationals. The team went on to perform well in competitions throughout the prefecture.[6] However, the Mie Prefecture High School Newcomer's Volleyball Championship in February 2016, the Spring Championship in April, and the Mie Prefecture High School General Athletic Meet (Interhigh Preliminary Qualification) in May-- all finished as the second runner-up. In order to get better he decided to join the newly established U-19 of the local club team Veertian Mie, where they would have regular practices with Tenri University. In June, they won the U-19 boys division of the Mie Prefecture Young Volleyball Championship, and in September, they won the national championship. Nishida received the "Japan Young Club Volleyball Federation Award as an outstanding player in that tournament.

Just as he had done in junior high school, Nishida practiced with three different teams and went on to compete in the Mie Prefectural High School Championship (Haruko Prelimnaries) in November. Kaisei High School won smoothly and faced their rival Matsusaka Kogyo, in the final where they lost. [7]

Then came the Inter-High held in Yamagata Prefecture in 2017 with their match against Hokkaido’ Tokai University. Kaisei went on to win their next match against Soma High School (Fukushima) by a set count of 2-0 and advanced to the final tournament with their first Inter-High win. Their first game of the tournament was against Higashi Fukuoka High School, a powerhouse that is a regular in the national tournament. The unknown Kaisei beat the defending champion Higashi Fukuoka by a set count of 2-0.

In the next match, Osaka's Seifu High School, the old powerhouse that defeated Higashi Fukuoka, did not let their guard down against Kaisei and won once again. In the next round, they lost to Narashino of Chiba (set count 0-2) but they made it to the top 16 in their first Inter-High Tournament.[8] Kaisei advanced to the finals of the five-set match against Matsusaka Technical High School, the absolute champion of the tournament and lost. This Haruko qualifiers game was his last game in high school.

In October, it was revealed that he received an offer from JTEKT Stings. In August of that year, he experienced his first international match. The following year, when the Asian Youth Championships began at the end of March, and the team won the championship for the first time in its history.

Nishida's V-League debut was on January 6, 2018, in a match against Sakai Blazers.[9] Nishida was introduced midway through the first set. Although they lost the match in straight sets, Nishida played an imposing role with 15 spikes, 10 runs scored, and a high attack decision rate of 66.7%. The next day, he made an appearance against JT Thunders. Nishida scored 26 points, the most on the team, with a high attack decision rate of 56.4% again in a heated match that went to a full set against the powerful JT. The team lost the match by a set count of 2-3. JTEKT finished 6th in the season and advanced to the "Final 6", but did not advance beyond that. They lost to the Panasonic Panthers and finished as runners-up, but Nishida received the **"Wakawashi Award," (t/n: lit. Young Eagle Award) which is the Rookie of the Year award.[10]

He was called up to the Senior National team for the first time in April of the same year after graduation. Nishida made his senior national team debut on May 25, 2018, in his first Nations League match in Rouen, France. He was named a starter in that match against Australia, and played the full four sets, scoring 15 points. In the third week of the "Japan Round" held at the Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium, the team faced Italy after losing in straight sets to Bulgaria and Poland. Nishida, who played the full match, scored 24 points, including three service aces, and was the best scorer of both teams combined, and the team won in full sets. Japan won in full sets for the first time in 11 years against a strong team that had won three consecutive world championships. In the end, Japan finished the tournament in 12th place with 6 wins and 9 losses.

Then, in September, he competed in the World Championships, jointly hosted by Italy and Bulgaria. Nishida did not play in the game the next day due to minor foot injury, and the team lost straight away. The opening match of the season was moved up by one match, so there were three days left before the second match against the Dominican Republic, and Nishida returned to the court in the third set. The team won in straight sets but lost the next match against Slovenia and the match against Belgium, in which Nishida returned to the starting lineup, to finish with one win and three losses. [11]

In the 2018-19 season, JTEKT Stings stagnated in 7th place, out of the playoffs. Nishida scored with 570 points, ranking third in total points scored, behind two foreign contributors from other teams. He maintained a high attack decision rate of 50.7%, which ranked 9th. In terms of the number of blocks decided, he was ranking fourth (50 points), breaking in with the middle blockers. Along with Nishida, the other candidate was Issei Otake of Panasonic Panthers, who won that season’s Rookie of the Year given which is usually given to rookies active for less than three years, with overwhelming strength. [12]

In April 2019, Yuji Nishida was selected to represent Japan for the second year in a row. After completing the national team training camp, they went to the Nations League qualifying round that started on May 31 and lasted for about a month. Nishida played a full game in 12 of 15 matches, and Japan finished 10th with 7 wins and 8 losses. The team moved up two places from the previous year's competition but did not advance to the final round. In the following Asian Championship (Iran), which started on September 13, in the match against Australia at the semifinals was a loss and a win over Korea in the third place match.

The following October, the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship was held in Japan and the opening match was with Italy which was a victory for Japan. Nishida scored 16 points. Japan played a total of 11 games in a row, with one or two days off in between. After a good start, Japan lost to Poland in the second round and the United States in the fourth round, but from the fifth to the ninth round, Japan won five consecutive games for the first time in the history of the tournament. In the seventh round, they also won their first World Cup match against Russia, who was ranked fifth in the world at the time, with a set count of 3-1 and were hopeful of winning their first medal in 42 years with 5 wins and 2 losses.[13]

Egypt, the opponent in the eighth match, was ranked 13th in the world at that time, and the Japanese team, ranked 11th, needed a victory for sure. Japan won the fifth set 15-13 for their sixth win. In the ninth match, the team defeated Iran, the champion of the Asian Championship held in September of the same year, by a set count of 3-1. Japan became the first country in history to win five consecutive World Cup games to secure fourth place or higher. The opponent for the tenth match was Brazil, the Rio Olympics champion. Nishida, who scored a team-leading 17 points in the game.

Then, in the final match against Canada, which ended the fruitful World Cup, Nishida delivered even bigger surprises to Japanese fans. At 8-9, behind by one point, Nishida spiked from the right and went back to serve. In the second one, he broke the serve-receive of the left attacker and scored consecutive aces. The third serve was not an ace, but it was still a broken serve-receive, and middle blocker Akihiro Yamauchi shut it out with a block. The fourth one was another service ace, which almost decided the match at 13-9. On the fifth serve, the toss drifted forward a bit. Nevertheless, he hit the ball as hard as he could and took the ace making Canada take a time-out. After the time-out Nishida came back and with a service ace, he wrapped up the match.

Nishida scored a total of 174 points in the tournament, placing him third overall in the best scorer rankings. He scored 29 service aces, the only player among the competitors to have more than 20. He was awarded "Best Server" and "Best Opposite" for his impressive performance. [14]

Not satisfied with his first top-four finish in 28 years, Nishida went on to lead his team to their first V-League title. The first game of the regular round against these champions is the last home game of the first leg (November 23). A huge cheering section from JTEKT's headquarters rushed to the venue, which was packed to capacity, but JTEKT Stings lost to Panasonic Panthers in straight sets, 0-3. The ace Nishida also scored 30 points. In the 3rd match on Feb 8, with an eye on the final stage, they showed their strength in the blocks and won in straight sets. After winning the first-place match, Panasonic Panthers also won the next day's match to finish first in the regular round. JTEKT Stings, on the other hand, finished second and advanced to the finals. JTEKT had beaten Suntory, who had advanced to that point, and now faced the final match with Panasonic Panthers. That match was decided to be a non-spectator due to the spread of the new Coronavirus infection. At one point, there was news that the game would be canceled, but if that had happened, according to the league's rules, the winner would have been Panasonic Panthers, which had been ranked higher in the regular round.

Finally on February 29th the match took place. The championship has been out of reach since the team was founded. Nishida, who greatly contributed to the achievement of this long-cherished dream, won the titles of "High scorer" and "Serve Effectiveness Rate," which were fixed at the end of the regular round, as well as MVP.[15]

• 2018 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League - Top 4 Best Scorers at Preliminary Round [16]
• 2018/2019 2018-19 V. League - Rookie of the Year [17]
• 2018/2019 2018-19 V. League - Best Servers [18]
• 2018/2019 2018-19 V. League - 3rd Best Scorer [19]
• 2019 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League - Top 2 Best Scorers at Preliminary Round [20]
• 2019 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League - Top 2 Best Servers at Preliminary Round [21]
• 2019 AVC Asian Championship - Best Servers
• 2019 FIVB World Cup - Best Opposite Spiker
• 2019 FIVB World Cup - Best Servers
• 2019/2020 2019-20 V. League - Most Valuable Player
• 2019/2020 2019-20 V. League - Best Scorers
• 2019/2020 2019-20 V. League - Best Servers
• 2019/2020 2019-20 V. League - Best Opposite Spiker

• 2017: Gold medal in the 2017 Asian Boys' U19 Volleyball Championship in Myanmar

• 2019: Bronze medal in the 2019 Asian Men's Volleyball Championship in Iran