Lausanne, Switzerland, June 10, 2017 - Japan host Korea Sunday in Takasaki aiming at a fourth win in a row against their Asian rivals, as both teams stand at a 3-2 record in this season's FIVB World League.
Head-to-Head• Japan have won all of their last three major encounters with Korea in straight sets.
• All three of those matches were World League encounters and all were played in Osaka, Japan.
• Korea last beat Japan in the 2015 World League. Korea won in straight sets in front of a home crowd in Hwaseong.
• Japan have only won more World League matches by a 3-0 scoreline against China (7) than against Korea (5).
Japan• After losing their first two matches of the 2017 World League campaign, Japan have now recorded three consecutive wins.
• Japan could win four successive World League matches for the fourth time, after four in 1990, four between 1992-1993 and four in 1993.
• With their 3-2 win against Slovenia, Japan ended a six-match losing streak when playing five sets in the competition. It was their first five sets win since 29 June 2014 (against Germany).
• Masahiro Yanagida scored a team-high 19 points in Japan's last match, against Slovenia. Five of those points were aces.
Korea• Korea have won three matches so far at the 2017 World League. Last year they started their campaign with six successive defeats.
• Korea beat Turkey 3-2 despite scoring fewer points than their opponents (102-105).
• Six of Korea's last seven World League matches were five-setters, the exception being their 3-1 loss to Slovenia last weekend.
• Korea have won at least one set in each of their last nine World League matches, their longest such streak since a run of 13 in 2008-2009.
• Kang-Won Lee scored most points for Korea for the second match in a row. Against Slovenia he managed 16 points and against Turkey 18 points. Hui-Chae Song also scored 18 points against Turkey.