In a sentence

She is a rare “power player” in Japan’s women’s team, and the representative of Japan’s attempt to meet China head-on on power.

Playing style

  • Left-handed shakehand with inverted rubber on both sides, a powerful, heavy-spinning forehand
  • Outstanding physical qualities and strong mid- and long-distance rallies
  • Marked improvement in her backhand in recent years, making her game more balanced overall

Career and key moments

At the Paris 2024 Olympics she won women’s singles bronze and women’s team silver with Japan; in 2025 she won the All Japan Championships women’s singles, but lost 0–4 to Chen Xingtong in the women’s singles at the Doha World Championships and exited in the quarterfinals. In 2026 she and Miwa Harimoto won the WTT Singapore Grand Smash women’s doubles and took women’s team silver with Japan at the London World Championships. She has long been Japan’s No. 1 women’s singles player and has often been tasked with facing Chinese opponents in team events.

What she left the game

The pairing of her and Miwa Harimoto means Japan’s women’s team now has medal-capable lineups in both singles and doubles — the most obvious change in Japanese women’s table tennis in recent years.

In a sentence: When an opponent starts placing more players in the medal zone, a team event becomes a completely different challenge.