Although European table tennis has shown signs of rising in recent years, when it comes to the biggest competitors for the national team, it is still the Japanese team. Japan has the potential to challenge the national team for Olympic gold medals in all three events: singles, mixed doubles, and team competitions. For example, the Japanese team successfully blocked the national team at the Tokyo Olympics, winning their first-ever mixed doubles gold medal in history. However, they are now focusing on the team event for future Olympic victories. On one hand, the individual abilities of the Japanese team are still unable to surpass the top three players of the national team, and team events have greater uncertainty. On the other hand, the national team's echelon construction is currently experiencing some issues, and many media predict that the stage most likely to expose problems will be the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. As expected, the Japanese Table Tennis Association has begun making significant changes for the Los Angeles Olympics. They recently announced two new head coaches for the men's and women's teams at a press conference, including a former Chinese player who renounced his Chinese nationality and naturalized in Japan.
According to Japanese media reports on January 20th, the Japanese Table Tennis Association announced the new head coaches for the men's and women's national teams at a press conference held in Tokyo on the 19th. The head coach of the women's team is Wang Rui, a former Hebei player from China, who has now changed her name to "Nakazawa Taku." The head coach of the men's team is 37-year-old Kishikawa Kenta.
Let's start with Kishikawa Kenta. Kishikawa was a former member of the Japanese national table tennis team and was the second seed in his time. In his youth, Kishikawa was highly regarded by the entire Japanese table tennis community. He was sent to Europe to play at a young age, even going to Germany with the hope of "reviving Japanese table tennis." At the age of 24, he won the bronze medal in mixed doubles at the World Table Tennis Championships with Fukuhara Ai, achieving Japan's first mixed doubles medal in 34 years. Throughout his career, Kishikawa competed in two Olympics: the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics. Comparatively, he performed better in London, where he lost to the current head coach of the national men's team, Wang Hao, in the quarterfinals of the men's singles event, finishing in eighth place.
At the press conference, Kishikawa expressed that he had been taken care of by the Japanese Table Tennis Association and the national team since the age of 13, and now he finally had the opportunity to repay them. Kishikawa stated that his future goal is to enhance the personal abilities of Japanese male singles players, improve their world rankings, and hopes to win medals missed in Paris at the Los Angeles Olympics. He openly declared that "winning singles medals" is his biggest goal! However, among the current Japanese male team, only Tomokazu Harimoto has the potential to challenge the national team. Interestingly, Kishikawa once again has the chance to face Wang Hao as a coach.
The new head coach of the Japanese women's team is Nakazawa Taku, originally named Wang Rui, who previously played for the Hebei provincial table tennis team. Compared to Kishikawa, Nakazawa's playing career was less remarkable; he never made it into the Chinese national table tennis team and retired early at the age of 24. After retiring, he went to Japan to become a table tennis coach. In 2008, at the age of 30, Nakazawa chose to renounce his Chinese nationality, join the Japanese nationality, and naturalize into the Japanese national table tennis team, officially changing his name to Nakazawa Taku.
Although Nakazawa did not perform well as a player, he excelled as a coach in Japan. He trained many representative players, including Miyu Kato, Tomokazu Harimoto, Miu Hirano, and Kasumi Ishikawa. Among them, Miu Hirano became the youngest national champion in Japanese table tennis history under Nakazawa's training and defeated the main players of the national team multiple times in subsequent international competitions. Additionally, Nakazawa briefly coached Tomokazu Harimoto, which also brought him fame in the Japanese table tennis world. This impressive resume is the main reason why the Japanese Table Tennis Association hired him as the head coach of the national women's team.
As the new head coach of the Japanese women's team, Nakazawa also made bold statements at the press conference. He said that he felt honored after learning that the Japanese Table Tennis Association entrusted such an important position to him and strongly felt the immense responsibility. He hopes to build a stronger team during his tenure and, since the strength of the Japanese women's team is closest to that of the Chinese team, his goal is to win the team gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics and increase the number of medals in the women's singles event. Nakazawa even declared that his goal is "only the Olympic gold medal." It remains to be seen how Liu Guoliang, who is embroiled in a public controversy, will respond.
