Rikuya Ito, Kaito Kawabata, Kentaro Sato and Aoto Suzuki ran to a second-place finish in the men's 4x400-meter relay at the World Athletics Relays, crossing the line in 3 minutes 4.45 seconds on Sunday in Chorzow, Poland.
It was Japan's first time earning a medal in this event in Olympic or world championship competitions.
In the women's 4x100 relay, Japan's Hanae Aoyama, Mei Kodama, Ami Saito and Remi Tsuruta teamed up to run a 44.40 and finish in fourth place and join the men's 4x400 squad in securing a place at the Tokyo Olympics.
The men's 4x100 relay team, which also had already earned a slot at the Olympics and featured Ryuichiro Sakai, Ryota Suzuki, Daisuke Miyamoto and Hiroki Yanagita, was fifth in 39.42. However, two teams that crossed before Japan were disqualified, bumping it up into third.
It's a strong showing for the men's 4x400 to earn the silver medal and something the runners can be proud of, even though a number of powerhouse nations have not taken part in events since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The squad used a different lineup of runners in the final after advancing through the preliminaries.
Aoto Suzuki, who ran the previous day when the team set a Japan record in the mixed 4x400, was selected to run the anchor leg.
The 19-year-old Suzuki, who said he went into the event "with a mindset that I was on a mission," took the baton in fourth place for the final straight and pushed the team into second. That was enough to make up for the hole created when injured ace runner Julian Walsh was unable to participate at the relays.
The men's 4x100 team has been in the spotlight, but the 4x400 squad had come close to winning medals in the past.
Everyone's motto is "We can't lose to the 4x100," and the runners have worked on that together through the winter training camp.
Said Kentaro Sato, who plays the role of leader: "We want to show we're a team that can get a medal."
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