Rugby World Cup 2019 was held in Japan and South Africa defeated England at the final. The host nation, Japan qualified to the knock out stage but lost against South Africa at quarterfinal match in Tokyo. Anyway, Japan defeated Ireland and Scotland in pool stage.
Rugby is a popular sport in Japan. Especially high school and university matches attract thousands of spectators but international match was not so popular. The reason was simple. Japan was not strong at all. Therefore domestic matches were shown live on TV but international matches were not.
This changed when Japan defeated South Africa in 2015 during the Rugby World Cup in England. It was one of the biggest sport upsets in the history. It is similar that Japan beats Italy in FIFA World cup.
After Rugby World Cup 2019, rugby is definitely one of the team sports which Japan can reach the semi finals. It has reached the level of baseball. Then, I hope that Japan will get the Gold medal or equivalent result in rugby in near future.