Following the conclusion of the 2025 Tokyo Grand Slam, the All-Japan Judo Federation has chosen four judokas for the 2026 Baku World Championships in October. They are Sanshiro Murao (-90kg), Shiho Tanaka (-70kg), Haruka Kaju (-63kg) and Uta Abe (-52kg). These are all defending World Champions who also won gold at the Tokyo Grand Slam.
One of the most exciting matches in the Tokyo Grand Slam was the semifinal match between Hifumi Abe and Takeshi Takeoka. In that match, Takeoka was the aggressor but he could score on Abe in regular time and the match went deep into Golden Score. In Golden Score, Takeoka was again the aggressor but as they approached the 9-minute mark in Golden Score, Abe pulled off a well-time kouchi-gari that unbalanced Takeoka and allowed Abe to rotate him over for a waza-ari.
Abe was the winner there but he isn’t the defending World Champion. Takeoka is. So, neither one was selected yet for the 2026 World’s. A decision will be made further down the road based on their performance in IJF events and the All-Japan Weight Class Championships.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be either/or. For the 2025 World’s both Abe and Takeoka were sent. As it turns out, it was Takeoka and not Abe (who was the favorite) who prevailed there.
