We predict Japan will win the Asian Games judo tournament

One of the biggest sporting events this year will be the Asian Games.

The Asian Games will be held in China’s Hangzhou from the 10^th of September to the 25^th.  Every four years these Games are held, with the last one hosted in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.

Many great champions have participated in this prestigious event, that includes Olympic Champions such as Keiji Suzuki, the current Japanese men’s head coach and Kosei Inoue, his predecessor.

Japan’s Olympic Champion Akira Sone will be defending her Asian Games title in Hangzhou. She is a big favorite but is definitely not the only top favorite from Japan, who is sending many of their best players to the competition.

The previous 2018 Asian Games had eight Japanese winners, six women and two men.

While the men's selection was announced previously, the women's selection was unveiled at the end last weekend’s Emperors Cup in Yokohama. Popular top stars in the female team include Ai Shishime, Tsukasa Yoshida, and the Olympic Champion Akira Sone. Among the men’s selection are Olympic Champions Shohei Ono and Aaron Wolf. Fan favorites Ryuju Nagayama and Takeshi Sasaki are also selected for the men’s team.

Super strong women’s team

Japan’s women’s team looks very solid and they will count with reigning world champion at U52kg, Ai Shishime, two vice world champions, Wakana Koga at U48kg and Yoko Ono at U70kg, and a world bronze medalist, Mami Umeki at U78kg.

Female selection

U48kg: Wakana Koga

U52kg: Ai Shishime

U57kg: Tsukasa Yoshida

U63kg: Nami Nabekura

U70kg: Yoko Ono

U78kg: Mami Umeki

+78kg: Akira Sone

Men’s Olympic Champions warm up

Ono didn’t compete in the trials for the World Championships in Tashkent and thus will not be participating. The Asian Games will be a recovery competition for him, before his return to the IJF Judo World Tour, and especially the Tokyo Grand Slam at the end of the year.

The selection of Aaron Wolf is a bit contentious as it was former World Champion Ryunosuke Haga who won the trials, but he was not selected for the Worlds.

Male selection

U60kg: Ryuju Nagayama

U66kg: Ryoma Tanaka

U73kg: Shohei Ono

U81kg: Takeshi Sasaki

U90kg: Sanshiro Murao

U100kg: Aaron Wolf

+100kg: will be decided later

History of the Japanese winners in the tournament

The Asian Games were held for the first time in 1986. It was held in Seoul, which later became an Olympic city (1988). Hitoshi Saito was one of the Japanese winners in the inaugural Games. In 1990 in Beijing, Hirotaka Okada was one of the Japanese stars there. In 1994 it was the first time that Japan’s tiny powerhouse Ryoko Tani competed (and won).

All-time great Kosei Inoue won the Asian Games in 1998 in Bangkok at U100kg while Shinichi Shinohara took the heavyweight title. Keiji Suzuki won in 2002 and grabbed the Olympic title two years later in Busan, South Korea. That same year, Kosei Inoue won the open tournament and his second Asian Games title.

At the Asian Games in Doha, Japan didn’t dominate as much and won just three gold medals, one for Masae Ueno, who later went on to become a double Olympic Champion. Her sister Yoshie Ueno won the title in 2010 in Guangzhou. As a curiosity, that was also the last year the Asian Games were held in China until 2022.

South Korea has hosted the Asian Games three times. Incheon was the host for the 2014 Games. It was there that Misato Nakamura became one of the five Japanese winners. In 2018 the Japanese dominance was at its peak, and we predict it will be similar this time around, with at least 50% of all titles going to Japan.

Misato Nakamura, Kosei Inoue, Yasuyuki Muneta, Hiroyuki Akimoto and Yukimasa Nakamura are all Japanese champions who have won the Asian Games gold twice. We predict that Akira Sone will be the next double Asian Games champion. But it won’t be until September that we will find out if that is right! Till then, we’re just going to have to wait and kill time by doing the things we most love to do in our free time. Whether it’s going camping with friends, hitting the gym, or spending time playing casino games like the book of dead slot, fans of the tournament need to find a way to occupy themselves to suppress the long wait.