In a sentence

Her record is not the brightest, but she was the warmest link between Chinese and Japanese table tennis over the past two decades.

Playing style

  • Close-to-table fast attack, with clean, crisp backhand flicks and smashes
  • Fast hitting rhythm, good at using speed to smother an opponent’s initiation
  • Fine touch over the table, tight transition in the first three balls

Career and key moments

She started playing at three, trained in China for much of her childhood and spoke fluent Chinese, which gave her a name recognition in Chinese-language circles far beyond her results. She competed at four Olympics — 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 — won women’s team silver with Japan at London 2012, and added women’s team bronze at Rio 2016. In 2018 she announced her retirement.

What she left the game

By honors she trails her Chinese contemporaries, but by contribution to the spread of the sport she may rank at the very top — many Chinese viewers started watching Japan’s team because of her.

In a sentence: Sport’s radius of influence is sometimes wider than the medal table.