Uta Abe - the 4-time world champion and current Olympic champion is an unstoppable force in her weight category. Once again, at the Tokyo Grand Slam 2023, none of her opponents could become the immovable object and inflict a rare defeat, as she breezed through the women’s 52 kg weight category to the final of her home grand slam for the 6th time in as many tries.

Astride Gneto (France) was the last person standing between Abe and her 8th grand slam gold medal. The French fighter set up a semi-final with top seed Reka Pupp (Hungary), where Gneto was able to score waza-ari and, despite picking up two shidos under pressure from the Hungarian. But the final bout lasted only 1 minute. A seemingly innocuous ko-uchi-gari from two sleeves from Abe had Gneto flat on her back before she could impose herself in the contest.

Hifumi Abe made his return to international competition in Tokyo following his 3rd world title defence in Doha earlier this year. Coming in with a 36-match winning streak stretching all the way back to 2019, Abe once again didn’t disappoint. 

In the quarterfinals of men’s 66 kg weight category he was drawn to face the current world number 1 Denis Vieru (Moldova) in a mouth-watering contest. What perhaps should have been a challenge turned out to be a breeze for the Japanese star. He threw Vieru twice in 40 seconds to score two decisive waza-aris and leave the top seed stunned. 

Abe took only 10 seconds longer than his sister in her final to take yet another top spot on the podium. He threw Baskhuu Yondonperenlei (Mongolia) with his trademark misdirecting o-soto-gari to score another highlight-reel ippon and an incredible 11th grand slam gold medal. 

Despite a 4-strong Japanese team featuring former world champions and the current Olympic champion, the women’s -78kg category at the Tokyo Grand Slam 2023 was not dominated by the host nation like it was the previous year, as the hosts could only manage one podium place, compared with 3 in 2022. Two non-Japanese world champions, one past and one present, would claim the top spots.

In the top half of the draw the current world champion and top seed Inbar Lanir (Israel) blasted her way past current Olympic champion Shori Hamada (Japan) in the quarter-final and 4-time grand slam winner Rika Takayama (Japan) in the semi-final, in less than 4 minutes of contest time. She threw both of them for an ippon.

On the opposite side of the draw, former and 3-time world champion Mayra Aguiar (Brazil) defeated the other two Japanese fighters, Mizuki Sugimura and then Mami Umeki, to make her way to the final. Her win against Umeki took her only 7 seconds, as she threw the experienced world champion with ko-uchi-gari in the first exchange.

In the final 32 year old Aguiar scored waza-ari, also in the opening exchange, and Lanir couldn’t pull the score back. Aguiar won her 6th grand slam gold medal and her 20th overall. 

Men’s 100 kg weight category showed a surprising dominance of young athletes, as 22 year old Matvey Kanikovskiy (AIN) and 18 year old Dota Arai (Japan) reached the final. Kanikovskiy  met in the quarterfinals with newly-crowned European champion Zelym Kotsoiev (Azerbaijan) who had soundly beaten Kanikovskiy en route to that title. The neutral athlete wasn’t going to let that happen again, throwing the Azeri with a powerful waza-ari in the 2nd minute of the contest. In the semifinal he defeated Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam 2023 winner Gonchigsuren Batkhuyag (Mongolia) who was on similarly impressive form, having knocked out home favourite Kentaro Iida in round 2.

Arai produced arguably the biggest upset of the day, taking out the current world champion Arman Adamian (AIN) in the preliminaries. He then faced the former world number 1 Michael Korrel in the quarterfinal and the Japanese judoka scored a waza-ari early on with a counter to Korrel’s dropping shoulder throw, comfortably holding onto his lead to make it through to the semi-final. Last year’s surprise winner Gennaro Pirelli (Italy) was Arai’s opponent, having just beaten the current Olympic champion Aaron Wolf (Japan) in their quarter final. Such was Arai’s brilliance, he did what none of Pirelli’s opponents this year or last could do at this event, throwing him for ippon in just 43 seconds, sending the home crowd into a frenzy.

The final was over almost too soon, however, as Kanikovskiy surprised Arai with a sneaky hikikomi-gaeshi in just 40 seconds to score ippon and take another gold away from the hosts, his 5th grand slam medal in as many attempts. 

With 6 of the world’s top 10 athletes in the men’s +100kg category present at the Tokyo Grand Slam 2023, there was nowhere to hide for those looking to make it onto the podium at the final IJF World Tour event of the year. On the second and final day of competition, when the dust settled on the tatami at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, it was Tamerlan Bashaev (AIN) who stood apart from the rest.

The Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist from 2021 delivered an absolute masterclass on his way to taking his 5th grand slam gold. In the early rounds, he used the rarely-seen ude-garami to submit Stefansson, along with myriad dropping techniques to defeat world silver medallist Kokauri (Azerbaijan), double Olympic, world and European champion Lukas Krpalek (Czech Rep), and finally multiple World Tour medallist Levani Matiashvili (GEO) in the semi-final.

His opponent in the final would turn out to be the equally technical Minjong Kim (Korean Republic), whose run through to the final was just as impressive In the quarter-final, he held down the current world champion Inal Tasoev (AIN) to cause a big upset. In his semi-final, he threw and held world silver medallist Tatsuro Saito (Japan) to set up a showdown with Bashaev.

The final was dominated by Bashaev, whose attacks were more frequent and more threatening. Towards the end of the 3rd minute of the match, Bashaev produced one of the throws of the tournament: a masterful uchi-mata-sukashi which made Kim appear weightless. It was a stunning ippon to end a magnificent weekend of judo.

Japan’s Natsumi Tsunoda is the current and 3-time consecutive world champion at women’s 48 kg, and her recent dominance of the category has been rewarded with a maiden selection to represent her country at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the age of 31. She arrived at the Tokyo Grand Slam 2023 on day 2 looking to pick up some extra ranking points and ensure she will be seeded for that all-important event. True to form, she produced arguably the most ruthless performance of the day defeating most of her opponents with less than one minute. 

Japan took a clean sweep of the medals in the women’s 63 kg category at their home grand slam in 2022, and with a 4-strong team once again for the Tokyo Grand Slam 2023, but Joanne van Lieshout from Netherlands spoiled their dominance by claiming the bronze medal. Two time world champion Megumi Horikawa remained the 5th this time, and in the final bout last year’s winner Miku Takaichi defeated 22-year-old Kirari Yamaguchi.

We witnessed one more Japanese final in the men’s 60 kg weight category. Reigning Olympic champion and 4 time world champion Naohisa Takato Ryfaced Ryuju Nagayama. These athletes were fighting for a place for Japan National Team for the 2020 Olympic Games and Takato then won their bout and then became Olympic champion. 

This time Nagayama came very close to scoring with ippon at the 2-minute mark but there were strong attacks from both players, with Takato picking up one penalty in normal time. In the golden score, after a short medical delay, Nagayama produced a moment of magic. He threatened to throw Takato to his right side with uchi-mata, before switching to the left to drop underneath him with seoi-otoshi and score ippon, taking an incredible 11th grand slam gold medal and strengthening his case for selection for the Paris 2024 Games.

Final Results (-48 kg)
1. TSUNODA Natsumi (JPN)
2. FIGUEROA Julia (ESP)
3. MIYAKI Kano (JPN)
3. COSTA Catarina (POR)

Final Results (-52 kg)
1. ABE Uta (JPN)
2. GNETO Astride (FRA)
3. PRIMO Gefen (ISR)
3. LKHAGVASUREN Sosorbaram (MGL)

Final Results (-63 kg)
1. TAKAICHI Miku (JPN)
2. YAMAGUCHI Kirari (JPN)
3. VAN LIESHOUT Joanne (NED)
3. TAKAKI Mizuki (JPN)

Final Results (-78 kg)
1. AGUIAR Mayra (BRA)
2. LANIR Inbar (ISR)
3. YOON Hyunji (KOR)
3. TAKAYAMA Rika (JPN)

Final Results (-60 kg)
1. NAGAYAMA Ryuju (JPN)
2. TAKATO Naohisa (JPN)
3. BLIEV Ayub (AIN)
3. NAKAMURA Taiki (JPN)

Final Results (-66 kg)
1. ABE Hifumi (JPN)
2. YONDONPERENLEI Baskhuu (MGL)
3. VIERU Denis (MDA)
3. AGAMAMMEDOV Hekim (TKM)

Final Results (-100 kg)
1. KANIKOVSKIY Matvey (AIN)
2. ARAI Dota (JPN)
3. KOTSOIEV Zelym (AZE)
3. KORREL Michael (NED)

Final Results (+100 kg)
1. BASHAEV Tamerlan (AIN)
2. KIM Minjong (KOR)
3. TASOEV Inal (AIN)
3. KRPALEK Lukas (CZE)