Mele Yua Havili Kagawa (born 29 September 2001) is a Japanese rugby union player. She competed for at the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup.
Early career Kagawa was born to a Tongan father and a Japanese mother, she started playing rugby at the age of 8. She also participated in swimming from the fourth to sixth grade of elementary school, she competed in the freestyle category and took part in the Junior Olympics. She took up athletics in junior high school to develop her speed and recorded a personal best time of 12.9 seconds in the 100 metres, she won the prefectural relay championship.
In 2020, after graduating from Kumagaya Girls' High School, she enrolled at the Faculty of Sport Sciences at Waseda University. After she graduated from university, she studied abroad in New Zealand and the United States.
Rugby career
Sevens Kagawa was still in high school when she made her international sevens debut for Japan at 17. She was selected as a backup member for the side to the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She joined Nanairo Prism Fukuoka in 2024.
XVs Kagawa switched to playing fifteens in 2024 and initially started out in the Back row. She scored a try in her test debut for as a Winger against in May during the 2024 Asia Rugby Championship. She has played for Arukas Queen Kumagaya.
In July 2025, she scored two tries against in the second game of their two-test series. On 28 July, she was subsequently named in the Japanese side to the Women's Rugby World Cup in England.
Personal life Kagawa's father, Tuanaki Havili Kaufusi, played as Number 8 for Otsuka Hake. In 2023, she visited Tonga for the first time in 12 years.
References