Does Japan have the best future in table tennis?

Looking at the U-21 and U-18 rankings, they are filled with the many impressive Japanese players. I begin with Jun Mizutani~ Currently no. 22 in the world, 3 in U-21 and former no.1 in U-18. He has won the All Japan Championships twice and has garnered many other titles~ Then there was Kenta Matsudaira. Currently no. 1 on U-18. At 15 he was beating seasoned veterans of the likes of Michael Maze and Dimitji "Dima" Ovtcharov. He has also garnered many titles and awards for excellence. Hidetoshi Oya, a top player in U-21, and was semi finalist at the Brazilian Open beating other seasoned veterans all the way. Kenji Matsudaira, the lesser known of the brothers, already had his biggest victory over He Zhi Wen. He is also a top U-21 player~ Now I know people are just gonna say " Oh who cares China will just kick there asses" Well you may be right, but Sweden is gone, but I think Japan will be China's newest rival~!

yeah, Japanese are catching up pretty quick, i think they may replace korea one day. 

Japan is looking pretty impressive and I hope they do catch up, nothing against China but seeing other countries being successful and dominant is fun, variety is the spice of life.  But I don't think any other country will rival the TT program that China has

slaplink_pat wrote: Japan definitely has a bright future but I don't know if they have the BEST. I have read somewhere, but I can't remember where.... that Korea, Germany , Chinese Taipei and Singapore are making additional programs dedicated to juniors which will be implemented or are now implemented.

Singapore's program is not doing it very well though for a few reasons... population only stands at a bit over 4 million (so pool for local talent is small)... the family dun see much value in developing their kid into a professional athlete... the recreational TT environment is not the best, though I guess it might be better than a lot of other sports (especially in schools)...  true-blue Singaporeans can agree or disagree with me...

Yoshida is from China as well

Dima, Ma Long and Jun Mizutani is at about the same age.. Ma Long is the youngest if i am not mistaken.. Dima has leapt Jun in the last couple of months though, he is ahead of Jun at the moment in the world ranking.

I have read good things about Kenta.. Let's see whether he can continue his progress to the senior level..

yeah japan might be a super power, next to germany and korea, but not yet

well that may be true, but players who retire just dont have a future for themselves, what other skills do they have to live life after ping pong?

sure li ning is one exception, but theres little programs to help the athlete after retirement.

pongmaster wrote: coaching!

That's true... I have heard somewhere once that most of the Chinese kids who are trained professionally dun aspire to be professional players as much as just being professional coaches...

There is too many professional Chinese children that play almost at the standard of the adults. This was said in the Beijing Olympic interview in Hong Kong by Ko Lai Chak and Li Ching

popperlocker wrote: honestly if you look at the stats, Japan's youngsters are showing great potential in tt. As fans we should be happy, nothing is more boring than watching china play against china for everything... you forgot to mention kasumi ishikawa, who is a friggin beast from middle school, i'd say after she finishes high school she will surpass ai fukuhara but anyway chinese women are too dominant in tt and at almost every sport

o.O

I totally did not know that Kan Yo and Yoshida Kaii were not Japanese. Kan Yo looks Japanese enough but I always thought Yoshida Kaii didn't look very Japaneezy.

To be honest, in accordance with the OP, I think Japan has a very bright future. Their junior program must be freaking awesome because a lot of Japanese teenagers are doing well for their age groups.

The Koreans though have a very interesting junior program. It seems like they blend the styles of their older pros with the training. They combine the athleticism and the footwork of the penholders, the consistency of the Oh Sang Eun school of ownage, and lastly they retain the power of the forehand from the penholders. I think time will tell if this style will be able to dominate the TT scene.

I know that power and control (Wang Liqin) dominated the tt scene for a LONG time, but as of now spin and control (Wang Hao, Ma Lin) are excelling.

It seems that korea is the most competitive now.  I think that one day not all that distant china's domination will wane.  Not because of the rest of the world getting better, but simply because china's interests are becoming more diverse.

dragon kid wrote: dalamchops wrote: dragon kid wrote: I know Kan Yo is from China. Where does Kaii Yoshida comes from? His name looks Japanese enough, but his style is not that of a traditional Japanese player. he changed his name. Probably nobody knows the answer, but i'll ask anyway.. Why would he do that?

i know the answer to that: to become a japanese citizen, you must have a japanese name.

but most "japanese" names are either chinese or at least written in chinese (the same goes for korean names), so if you are actually chinese or korean to begin with, then you don't have to change your name so much--you just have to pronouce it in japanese.

so, "kan yo" and "yoshida kaii" are just simply the japanese pronunciations of their chinese names.  but, that said, in the case of yoshida kaii, the "da"  was probably added to "yoshi" cuz you don't usually find people in japan with just "yoshi" as a last name.

you also might have to make a slight change to the chinese characters, as well.

and as for japan rivaling china, i just don't see that happening.  i think mizutani jun will probably get into the top-20, but that's all.  yoshida kaii will not, unless he can somehow get himself to use the jpen backhand loop, cuz running around the table just hitting forehands is not gonna work anymore.  jpen players around the world, i think, are gonna have to rethink that strategy...

anyhow, the chinese system is just too damn good.  there's a zillion players over there ready replace the current crop of top players there when they're needed.