Japan's leading players may have to choose between their national championships and a WTT Champions event next January. The Japan Table Tennis Association (JTTA) said on Tuesday that the 2027 All Japan Championships and a WTT Champions tournament in Asia will both be held from 19 to 24 January, and that players entered for the WTT event may be unable to play at home.
The JTTA set out the problem in a notice on its website. It said it had asked the ITTF and WTT to change the dates as soon as the clash became clear, and had also approached the federation of the host country, without success.
How the clash happened
WTT Champions in Asia has usually been held in early January, well before the All Japan Championships. When the ITTF and WTT published the 2027 calendar on 1 September, the Asian Champions event had moved into the same week as Japan's national championships.
The JTTA said it regarded the clash, which would seriously affect its players, as hard to accept. It considered moving the All Japan Championships instead, but decided that changing the dates about four months before the event would be too difficult because of the effect on the venue, the organisation and everyone involved.
Why it matters
The All Japan Championships carry great prestige at home, but the leading players' careers are now built on the WTT tour. Japan has two of the men's top three, Sora Matsushima and Tomokazu Harimoto, and three of the women's top eight: Miwa Harimoto, Hina Hayata and Hitomi Sato. All five are regulars at WTT Champions events.
WTT Champions events carry significant ranking points, and ranking matters more than ever for Japanese selection. Japan's two singles and team places for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics will go to the two highest-ranked Japanese players in the first ITTF ranking of 2028. The JTTA has also dropped automatic World Championships selection for the All Japan singles champions.
For players chasing Olympic places, the January Champions event offers points that the national championships no longer can. For the All Japan Championships, the risk is a men's and women's draw without the country's best players.
The JTTA said it would ask the ITTF and WTT to coordinate international dates with major national events from 2028. It did not say which players are entered for the WTT event, and entries for WTT Champions events are usually confirmed a few weeks beforehand.
Japan's players are in Europe this week. Matsushima, the Harimotos, Hayata and Sato are all at WTT Champions Montpellier, where Matsushima is the top seed in the men's draw.
