From our other sites
The story
In the men’s table tennis team final on Day 6 of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Japan defeated China to win its first title in 60 years. The thread buzzed over the come-from-behind drama and the marathon match that ran past three hours. One camp argued “China must have held back its Olympic-generation players and sent a subs squad,” while another countered that “by world ranking, Japan — with Matsushima at No. 3 and Harimoto at No. 4 — was actually the stronger side.” Others noted that despite the dramatic win, the stands were oddly quiet, pointing out that the venue, Toyota City, isn’t an easy place to get to.
Sponichi
[ September 24, 2026, 20:07 ]
Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Day 6, Table Tennis: Japan vs. China (September 24, 2026, Skyhall Toyota)
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Even though they had the world No. 1 on the roster?
This IS China's current top 3. Fan Zhendong's basically retired from the national team already.
Newbie alert — the Asian Games is a tournament China always shows up to full strength for. Honestly, China's pipeline is drying up right now; the bench is thin and they don't have an undisputed ace anymore.
Matsushima's cuter, no contest.
Great face, figure's just okay though.
They've always said economic strength and sporting strength run in inverse proportion.
China/Korea → economy got stronger, sports got weaker
Japan today → economy got weaker, sports got stronger
(For reference: Japan in the '70s-'80s → strong economy, but weaker at sports than China/Korea)
The US has a strong economy and is strong at sports, and China's stayed strong too. If anything, football proves that a strong economy tends to come with strong sports.
Can't pull that excuse for table tennis — the crowd support made it basically a home game for China.
They had the world No. 1 on the team, though. Can't see them fielding a lineup that risks losing gold.
Well, it's basically China's venue crowd-wise.
I mean, the venue's in Toyota… even the locals find it a pain to get to.
Japan
Matsushima — World No. 3
Harimoto — World No. 4
Togami — World No. 13
China
Wang Chuqin — World No. 1
Lin Shidong — World No. 8
Wen Ruibo — World No. 15
Who's ranked No. 2? What country?
France's Félix Lebrun — white guy with glasses. Plays penhold and he's absurdly strong.
Thanks. So with a No. 3 and a No. 4, Japan's overall team strength was actually higher to begin with. They've really gotten strong.
Penhold was already fading out of the mainstream 40 years ago — didn't realize it wasn't extinct yet. Guess slapping rubber on the backside saved it from dying out.
To the point you'd worry about their families.
They'll get praised for "contributing to the growth of table tennis" instead (i.e., spun as a positive despite the loss).
The previous greatest-of-all-time Chinese player, who won in Paris, was chubby. Matsushima's probably built his body with that in mind.
The Mizutani-Kishikawa doubles pair were both chubby, remember?
Don't you know Coach Kishikawa, the original chubby guy?
Actually, they've poured huge money into football and gone all in — partly because Xi Jinping himself is a football fan. The issue is that team sports are rife with connections and bribery: kids of Communist Party officials with no real talent, or guys who bribed the coach heavily, end up starting. In an individual sport like table tennis, skill is impossible to fake, but in team sports individual ability alone can't carry you, so it's fertile ground for cronyism and bribes.
What era are you talking about? The domestic league's had unpaid wages nonstop — foreign players won't even come anymore, and they can't land naturalized players either.
Guess it really shows the national character. Even with FIFA bending over backwards to accommodate China, football's still a total bust — so bad it's beyond a joke (lit. "even the lol-grass withers").
Chinese table tennis has basically become "entertainment," and the vibe's a bit different, but football, basketball, and table tennis all get treated about the same over there. And honestly, Chinese internet users never miss a chance for sarcasm anyway.
Football's just for fun there, but table tennis is the national sport — completely different stakes.
Nobody's even watching the Asian Games in general.
It's because 5ch itself is a dead platform now.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
This match was held at Skyhall Toyota during the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, with Japan said to have avenged its loss from the previous tournament and claimed its first team gold in 60 years. What split the thread was whether China had actually gone all-out: against the theory that China held back its Olympic-generation players, some pointed out that lining up the world rankings — Matsushima at No. 3, Harimoto at No. 4, and Togami at No. 13 for Japan, versus Wang Chuqin at No. 1, Lin Shidong at No. 8, and Wen Ruibo at No. 15 for China — Japan’s combined ranking was actually higher, suggesting this wasn’t necessarily a case of beating a weaker opponent. Another point of discussion was how sparse the crowd looked, which some attributed to the venue effectively functioning as China’s home turf and to Toyota City’s inconvenient location. Worth noting: the exchange about corruption in Chinese football is not primary sourcing for the table tennis result itself — it’s simply a tangent among thread participants.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread “[Asian Games] Men’s table tennis team wins gold for the first time in 60 years! Finally beat China — Harimoto & Matsushima rally back from the brink, over 3 hours of intense battle“.
Leave a Reply