Jun Mizutani and Seiya Kishikawa won the men's doubles bronze medal at the table tennis world championships in Paris on Saturday.
Mizutani and Kishikawa were hoping to become the first Japanese men's doubles finalists in 44 years but had to make do with the bronze after they were blanked 11-7, 11-9, 12-10, 14-12 by Chinese top seeds Hao Shuai and Ma Lin.
In the men's singles, Ken Matsudaira defeated former world No. 1 Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus in full sets to reach Sunday's quarterfinals, where he will meet China's Xu Xin.