Japan woke up on Monday morning, respectively, the national sports day holiday that marks the 1964 Olympic games in Tokyo, to enjoy a historic Rugby world Cup victory over Scotland.

However, the festive mood surrounding Japan’s first qualification for the world Cup quarter-finals was overshadowed by the news of the rising death toll from Typhoon Hagibis, which came close to cancelling the match.

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Asahi Shimbun ran a photo of the victorious national team in the locker room after a 28-21 win “celebrating with pizza” and detailed praise heaped on Japan by international media, players and academics. The newspaper also trumpeted stories of making the nature of Japan’s victory: the first team from outside the top-tier countries to make it to the playoffs since Fiji in 2007 and the first Asian team to ever make it this far.

Mainichi Shimbun described an unusually animated comment by Nippon TV announcers during the game’s broadcast, quoting Kengo Nakano as his voice shook with emotion at the climax of the already famous victory: “a Global mark that could not be reached four years ago, the quarter-finals. The team surpassed that. This is Japan’s victory road!”

A translation of the description of Japan’s second try from the official Rugby world Cup website was also carried over to local media: “the Hooker creates it and the prop finishes it – with three offloads in between. It’s the kind of try only Japan can score …”Japan’s rise to seventh place in the world rankings, the highest place in the national team, has also been widely praised.

The domestic media coverage of the victory was also notable for its handling of the diverse nature of Japan’s current team with New Zealand-born captain Michael Leitch, who has played in Japan since high school, and their star striker Kotaro Matsushima, who was born to a Japanese mother and Zimbabwean father.

Newspaper specials were taken out to Tokyo on Sunday night after the game as they were following an earlier pool win against Ireland, although some papers refrained from distributing them to areas hit hard by the Typhoon. The mood of restraint that the Japanese call jishuku was also evident on Monday morning television news and chat shows, which all resulted with extensive coverage of the ongoing rescue efforts and storm damage the weekend before Rugby coverage.

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