A year ago today, the PVL had three Japanese head coaches calling the shots for three local teams.
Koji Tsuzurabara (Petro Gazz), Taka Minowa (Akari) and Shota Sato (Farm Fresh) comprised a third of the league’s entire roster of coaches.
READ: Coach Koji already 'looking for new team' after Petro Gazz exit
Completing the quartet of foreign coaches in that conference, the most the PVL had for a single tournament, was Chinese mentor Chen Gang for Nxled.
Fast forward to a year later, none of them are in the PVL anymore.
Here’s the story of the last three PVL head coaches to have hailed from an Asian volleyball powerhouse nation in Japan before their final ‘sayonara’ from local shores.
SHOTA SATO (Farm Fresh)
Of the Japanese coaching trio, Sato had the shortest head coaching tenure with just two PVL conferences to his name, including the week-long 2024 PVL Invitational Conference.
Sato first called the shots for the Foxies in the 2024 PVL Reinforced Conference.
There, they fell short in a four-set knockout quarterfinals loss to Minowa’s Akari side, 25-17, 18-25, 22-25, 23-25, and finished eighth in the tournament.
His head-coaching stint would be extended by a week in the PVL Invitationals, but the Foxies would go winless in four matches for a dead-last fifth-place finish.
Sato ended his brief run at the helm with a 3-10 (win-loss) coaching record, only having won against Galeries Tower in five sets and Nxled and Capital1, both in straight sets.
Also once part of Farm Fresh was his compatriot Master Shimizu, who briefly served as team consultant in 2024.
However, his first rodeo in the PVL wasn’t with Farm Fresh.
Sato was an assistant coach for Japanese guest team Kurashiki Ablaze when it won a breakthrough PVL championship in the 2023 Invitational Conference, toppling Creamline in the knockout title game in five sets.
Hideo Suzuki, Ablaze head coach at the time, returned for a second PVL stint with the Japanese champion team in the 2024 Invitationals where Sato was already calling the shots for Farm Fresh.
Sato was subsequently replaced a month after the Invitationals by then-interim head coach Benson Bocboc, who held the post for the succeeding All-Filipino tournament before being re-assigned as a deputy to now-Italian head coach Alessandro Lodi.
TAKA MINOWA (Akari, Nxled)
Minowa would have the longest stint for a Japanese PVL head coach, one that ran for over two years with two clubs.
The 33-year-old arrived in the Philippine volleyball scene as Nxled’s first-ever head coach in their debut campaign in the 2023 Second All-Filipino Conference.
Later that year, he was appointed as director of volleyball operations for sister teams Akari and Nxled while extending his head coaching stint with the Chameleons for one more conference.
READ Taka Minowa rues being informed of exit as Akari coach 'via email'
He had an 8-14 record with Nxled, ninth place in the Second All-Filipino Conference (4-7) and eighth in the succeeding 2024 All-Filipino Conference (4-7).
The former Japan women’s volleyball national team assistant coach found himself at the core of a mega-trade between Akari’s sister-team stable as he switched places with then-Akari head coach Raffy Mosuela.
It was a shakeup that paid huge dividends for the Chargers as the two Minowa-led PVL conferences both ended with the franchise’s first two podium finishes.
Akari bagged silver in the 2024 Reinforced Conference and copped bronze in the 2024-25 All-Filipino Conference, where Minowa recorded 20 wins and 10 losses.
Club breakthroughs aside, Minowa, husband of former PVL MVP Jaja Santiago (Sachi Minowa), also coached Alas Pilipinas’ under-19 girls’ team in the 2024 Asian Women's U18 Volleyball Championship where they ranked 10th in the 13-team field.
A tumultuous exit saga about his non-renewal as Akari head coach broke cover last June, where he has since been replaced by former Nxled deputy Tina Salak.
KOJI TSUZURABARA (Petro Gazz)
He may not be the longest-tenured or shortest-tenured coach from the bunch, but Tsuzurabara had something neither Sato nor Minowa had as head coach: a PVL championship.
Before even making his PVL debut, the 60-year-old Japanese tactician already led the Angels to a title win in the 2024 PNVF Champions League preseason tournament.
There, he made his Philippine volleyball debut along with his eventual top ace and now-two-time PVL MVP Brooke Van Sickle.
He’d make a strong first impression in the 2024 PVL All-Filipino Conference where Petro Gazz broke a two-conference podium skid with the bronze medal it won over Chery Tiggo in the battle for third.
The Angels dipped to sixth place in import-laden play with former PVL best foreign guest player Wilma Salas after getting swept by eventual champion Creamline, 23-25, 19-25, 28-25, in the knockout quarterfinals.
Redemption was as sweet as can be for Petro Gazz as it captured its first-ever All-Filipino Conference title by dethroning Creamline in a heated finals series in three games.
They would become the first local team in four years since the league turned pro in 2021 to defeat the Cool Smashers in a PVL Finals series, and shortly went on to finish sixth in the 2025 AVC Women’s Champions League just a few weeks later.
His tenure as Angels coach came to a screeching halt midway through the 2025 PVL on Tour preseason tilt where the newly-crowned league champions have just won once in four matches.
Tsuzurabara signed off on his Petro Gazz journey with 35 wins, including the all-important All-Filipino-clinching win, and 15 losses.
His successor has yet to be named as of posting time.
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