Yusei Sakiyama was among the quartet of karatekas that put themselves on the brink of a gold medal on another day of elimination and repechages at the Kobe Central Gymnasium in the capital city of the Hyōgo Prefecture.

He secured a spot in the men's under-75 kilograms final with a 13-4 win over Italy's Ammed Ezzat Momy El Sharaby.

Sakiyama's next and last opponent will be France’s Lou Lebrun after he was given the edge over Austria's Luca Rettenbacher following a 0-0 draw in their semi-final.

Japan's other men's finalist is Daiki Ando, who will go up against Iran's Saleh Abazari for the over-84kg title.

In women's competition, Yuki Kujuro and Kanako Oryu will also by vying for home gold medals.

Kujuro will face Iran’s Melika Ahadi in the under-61kg final, while Oryu will meet France’s Laura Sivert in the concluding match of the under-68kg event.

It all means that Japan will contest a total of nine individual finals, including the men's and women's kata, having progressed through to five yesterday.

The two finals they failed to reach today were those in the men's under-84kg and women's over-68kg categories.

Koki Kamaguchi was knocked out of the men's under-84kg event by Kosovo's Alvin Karaqi, who went onto suffer a semi-final defeat at the hands of the United States’ Kamran Madani.

Madani will do battle with Australia's Durham Mitchell for the gold medal.

In the women's over-68kg, Chinese Taipei’s Wen Tzu-Hsuan ousted Japan's Ayaka Saito in the penultimate round.

Her reward is a clash with Germany’s Rosa Marie Liebold on Sunday (July 22), when all the finals are due to take place. 

Elimination and repechages in the men's and women's team kata and men's and women's team kumite competitions is scheduled to be held tomorrow.