Zen-Noh, a federation of agricultural cooperatives in Japan whose main business is farm production, livestock and processed food, currently sponsors Kasumi Ishikawa, part of the Japanese women's team which took silver at London 2012, along with Ai Fukuhara and Sayaka Hirano.

All three players were present at the event marking the new sponsorship agreement, where the logo for next year's World Championships, due to take place in the Yoyogi National Gymnasium from April 28 to May 5, was also unveiled.

Designers of the logo claim it symbolises the synergy between table tennis and the Japanese culture.

"It is encouraging to see the preparations for the World Championships in Tokyo being at a very advanced stage; this gives the ITTF confidence that another great event will be staged by the Japan Table Tennis Association (JTTA)", said ITTF President, Adham Sharara.

"I take this opportunity to welcome Zen-Noh as the title sponsor and I am sure that they will be more than satisfied with the tremendous exposure they will receive through world-wide TV coverage."

This will be the first time the World Team Championships will be hosted by Japan since the individual and team events were split in 2000.

"We are honoured to be the title sponsor of Zen-Noh 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships", said Masanobu Yoshinaga, senior executive vice-president of Zen-Noh.

"Zen-Noh has been supporting children who are striving for their dreams in the various sports for a long time; we hope that by seeing the Championships, many children will be inspired to start playing table tennis in the pursuit of 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games."

The logo for the ITTF World Table Tennis Team Championships was unveiled in Tokyo today