Within a span of two weeks, two Japanese champions from the 1980s have died.
Masaki, 1985 World Champion
Yoshimi Masaki passed away on August 30 at the age of 64. No cause of death was announced but it was reported in Japanese media that it was a sudden death, and that he appeared to be active and healthy just a few days prior.
Masaki was a product of the highly-respected Tenri system. He attended Tenri High School before continuing at Tenri University.
The peak of his prime was in the mid-80s. In 1985, Masaki won the Open Weight gold at the Seoul World Championships in Seoul. And in 1986, he won the Open Weight gold at the Asian Games, which was also held in Seoul. Domestically, he won the prestigious All-Japan Judo Championships twice, in 1986 and 1987.
He never got a chance to compete in the Olympics. In 1984, the first and second place winners at the All-Japan Judo Championships were Yasuhiro Yamashita and Hitoshi Saito, respectively (Masaki came in third). As a result, both Yamashita and Saito were the ones chosen to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Yamashita brought home the Open Weight gold and Saito, the +95kg gold.
Masaki didn’t get to go to the 1988 Seoul Olympics either because that year, he lost to Saito in the All-Japan Judo Championships, which is usually used by the Japanese federation to select its heavyweight representative for the Olympics. By 1988, the Olympics no longer featured an Open Weight category, only the +95kg. As such, Japan could only send one athlete, and it was Saito who was chosen. He went on to win his second Olympic gold medal in Seoul.
After retirement from competition, Masaki became a coach with the Japanese men’s national team. He was also coach at Tenri University where he trained double World Champion Shinichi Shinohara and World Champion Takamasa Anai.
Hidetoshi Nakanishi, 1983 World Champion
Japanese judo has also lost former World Champion Hidetoshi Nakanishi, who passed away on 12 September, 2026 at the age of 68 from stomach cancer.
Nakanishi was one of Japan's leading lightweights of the early 1980s before becoming a respected coach.
He won the -71kg gold medal at the 1983 World Championships in Moscow where he defeated the 1980 Olympic Champion Ezio Gamba in the final, with a spectacular drop-knee seoi-nage.
Nakanishi was the national champion in Japan in 1982 and 1983. But in 1984, he had placed third in the Japanese nationals. (Takahiro Nishida had won the gold medal that year). However, Nakanishi was picked to represent Japan in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics on account of his superb performance at the 1983 World’s.
As the reigning World Champion, Nakanishi went into the LA Games as the top favorite. But disaster struck in the first round. His opponent from Senegal, Ibrahim Dialo, had managed to score first. It was only a koka but it put Dialo ahead. Try as he might, Nakanishi could not get a score but in the end, Dialo lost by penalties.
The reason for Nakanishi’s lackluster performance soon became obvious when he appeared in subsequent matches with straps on his chest. Nakanishi had somehow injured his ribs during the first match. He ended up getting fifth place in LA.
Nakanishi retired from competition after the Olympics and embarked on a coaching career where he eventually serve as head coach of Tokai University’s men’s team.
He remained involved in judo well into later life. As recently as August 2025, Nakanishi was spotted in Scotland, where he taught some techniques at a masterclass in Ratho, reports JudoInside.
