Hisayoshi Harasawa won his first national judo championship title by beating world silver medalist Ryu Shichinohe in the final at Tokyo's Budokan on Wednesday.
In the traditional annual tournament held on Showa Day to honor the previous emperor's birthday, the 22-year-old Harasawa went one better than his runnerup finish at the 2013 meet after beating Shichinohe on points to claim his first national crown.
Defending champion Takeshi Ojitani lost to Harasawa in the semifinals at the meet, which doubled as a qualifier for this summer's world judo championships in the men's over-100-kg category. Kenta Nishigata came third for the second year in a row.
Shichinohe defeated Daiki Kamikawa, who took the silver medal last year, by ippon in the quarterfinals.
Earlier in the day, men's judo coach Kosei Inoue revealed that three-time world champion Masashi Ebinuma (66kg) has suffered a shoulder injury to his rotator cuff and will require about two months to recover.
But Inoue said the injury is not likely to interfere with Ebinuma's participation in the worlds in Astana from Aug. 24-30.