Masashi Ebinuma defeats Soichi Hashimoto

Three-time world champion and double Olympic bronze medallist Ebinuma Masashi (JPN) defeated former world champion Hashimoto Soichi (JPN) in golden score to claim his third Grand Slam title. After the reigning Olympic and world champion Ono Shohei was ruled out with an index finger injury, and lost the opportunity to seal his selection by winning gold in Osaka, the onus was on Hashimoto going out and proving himself after being overlooked for the individual competition at the World Championships.

Ebinuma took advantage of a slip from his teammate and held down the four-time Grand Slam winner for ippon to ensure that he will earn international outings in 2020.

In the first semi-final 2017 Tokyo Grand Slam winner Tatsukawa Arata (JPN) was dismissed in golden score against Hashimoto. Tatsukawa was reprimanded for not taking a grip which was his third penalty to send the favourite into the final.

In the second semi-final EBINUMA avenged his Kodokan Cup final defeat to Harada Kenshi (JPN) by beating the IJF World Judo Tour rookie by a waza-ari score to advance to the final.

The first bronze medal was won by former world bronze medallist Ganbaatar Odbayar (MGL) after Harada made his third and final error to receive hansoku-make with nine seconds left as Grand Slam hardware eluded the newcomer to the international stage.

The second bronze medal went to Junior World Championships gold medallist Somon Makhmadbekov (TJK) after Tatsukawa made a careless mistake in the closing seconds. The home judoka, who led by a waza-ari, stepped out of the area with three seconds left to be penalised with his third shido and was dismissed to hand the bronze medal to the 20-year-old judoka from Tajikistan.