India had to settle for the bronze medal in the 13th Asian Junior Men's Volleyball Championship that concluded in Tehran on Friday.
India, Japan and Iran finished with two wins and a loss each at the end of the summit league, but were edged out to third place on set quotient (set scores - for and against).
Japan regained the title with a quotient of 1.50 and former champions Iran had 1.05 points while India accrued 0.974 points.
Chinese Taipei, with one win and two losses, finished fourth.
In their last and third match in the single group, Japan got the better of Iran at 27-25, 25-19, 26-28, 26-28, 15-9, while India, in a late night match on Thursday, lost to Iran at 15-25, 17-25, 17-25.
Earlier, Japan had defeated Chinese Taipei 27-25, 25-17, 25-22.