I am not an expert on Japanese baseball, but after watching most of the World Baseball Classic games, conducting a little research and reading coverage on the internet -- including English-language coverage from Japan -- I’ve come to the following conclusions:
(1) I have no idea whether this Japanese team is as strong as the teams that won the first two WBCs in 2006 and 2009.
(2) This team absolutely can win its next two games and go undefeated in the tournament, as the Dominican Republic did in 2013.
Japan went 6-0 in the first two rounds, joining those Dominicans and the 2006 South Korea squad as the only teams to enter the semifinals without a loss.