World champion Yuka Nishida spearheaded Japan's challenge on the opening day of the Grand Slam Tokyo judo tournament on Saturday, as the host nation won four titles out of four on offer. Nishida, a surprise winner over defending champion Misato Nakamura at the world championships, fended off a challenge from world junior champion Anzu Yamamoto with a yuko victory in the all-Japanese women's under-52kg final.
Japan made it an all-Japanese affair in the three finals with Masaaki Fukuoka beating the only remaining foreign judoka, Musa Mogushkov of Russia, by an ippon to win the men's under-66kg final. Mogushkov eliminated Japan's world champion Junpei Morishita in the quarter-finals and former world champion Tsagaanbaatar Hashbaatar of Mongolia in the semi-finals.
Japan dominated the men's under-60kg with eventual champion Hirofumi Yamamoto, Toru Shishime, Shinji Kido and Takashi Matsuki booking the four semi-final places. The 20-year-old Yamamoto, the 2009 world junior champion, defeated Kido by a waza ari and went on to win the final, beating Shishime by an ippon.
In the women's under-48kg, former world champion Tomoko Fukumi defeated Kaori Kondo by an ippon. Current world champion Haruna Asami of Japan, who caused a surprise victory over Fukumi in the world championships in September, lost to Kondo in the quarter-finals.