Kenta Matsudaira and Koki Niwa will leave the table tennis world championships with bronze medals in men's doubles after losing their semifinal on Saturday.
Matsudaira and Niwa were beaten in straight games by China's Fan Zhengdong and Zhou Yu 11-3, 11-7, 12-10, 16-14.
"It was a comprehensive defeat," Matsudaira said. "I thought we would be able to give them a better game, but they took the initiative and prevented us from playing our own game."
Mima Ito became the youngest Japanese player to reach the quarterfinals on Friday.