Mai Murakami, the first Japanese woman to win a world gymnastics all-around silver medal, defended her national title on Saturday and took a step toward qualifying for this summer's Tokyo Olympics.
Murakami, who represented Japan at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, earned 112.564 points at Takasaki Arena for her fifth national championship, finishing ahead of Hitomi Hatakeda in the four-apparatus women's competition for the second straight year, by 1.966.
Yuna Hiraiwa was third in the meet, where qualifying round points are added to points scored at Saturday's finals. Asuka Teramoto, a two-time Olympian who is making a comeback from injury, was sixth.