Jaja Santiago ineligible to play for Japan

A new ruling by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) halted Jaja Santiago’s aspiration to suit up for the Japan national women’s volleyball team. 

Jaja Santiago, who recently acquired Japanese citizenship and now goes by the name of Minowa Sachi, is ineligible to play for Japan based on a new FIVB rule that will prevent her from transferring from another federation.

Newly-elected president of Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Ramon “Tats” Suzara explained the technicalities, citing once a player suits up for one country’s national team, they can no longer do so for another nation.

“Even if Jaja has two passports, one Philippine passport and one Japanese passport, the federation origin is still in the Philippines. So, when you change federation it’s just a one time thing, you cannot go back to your old federation,” Suzara said during the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex on Tuesday, September 10.

If Santiago wants to keep playing volleyball on a national level, she can do so only for the Philippines.

“The problem is Jaja already played in the national team of the Philippines three to four times. With the new rule last year, she can never play for Japan, so she can still play in the Philippines because her federation origin is the Philippines,” he added.

Santiago had previously played for the Philippine national team in the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games, and FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championships.

In the updated FIVB Sports regulation, Section 5.2 talks through the conditions when it comes to the Federation of Origin.

Section 5.2.2 affirms that, “the player has obtained the nationality of the country of the new Federation.”

But section 5.2.3 added, “the player has not represented the senior national team of Origin,” preventing Santiago from playing for Japan.

The listed FIVB rules above are based on the May 31, 2024 version.