Have a gander through some standout facts and figures around DAIHATSU Japan Open 2026, the season’s third HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 event.

• For the second consecutive year, all five reigning champions return to defend their titles.
• China are the only nation with seeded entries across all five categories.
• This century, they have not produced titlists at just three editions (2004, 2012, 2023).
• No country has ruled a sector quite like China have in mixed doubles over the past decade. They have won six of the eight finals since 2016.
• Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping are the only top seeds yet to capture the Japan Open. Huang, however, is a two-time mixed doubles champion alongside Wang Yi Lyu (2017, 2019).
• Should Tse Ying Suet lift the mixed doubles crown with Tang Chun Man, she would become the first player to win two disciplines since Christinna Pedersen in 2016.
• Tse, the women’s doubles winner with Poon Lok Yan in 2012, could emulate Pedersen, who took women’s doubles with Kamilla Rytter Juhl in 2016, a season after acing mixed doubles alongside Joachim Fischer Nielsen.
• Mixed doubles is the category in which all their three triumphs have come for Thailand, who possess men’s singles second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
• After Akane Yamaguchi ended their 32-year wait for a home champion in 2013, Japan have celebrated podium toppers at every edition except 2016 and 2025.
• Third seed Yamaguchi is chasing a record-breaking fifth crown, which would move her one clear of Li Lingwei as the most successful women’s singles player.
• Remarkably, three of Yamaguchi’s four Japan Open triumphs have come in the last five editions.
• She already accounts for 80 per cent of Japan’s women’s singles titles at the tournament. Nozomi Okuhara is the other local player to have prevailed in 2015.
• Among returning former champions, Okuhara’s 11-year drought is the lengthiest.
• Top seeds Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning stand to become the first women’s pair since four-time winners Ge Fei/Gu Jun (1995, 1997-1999) to top the podium thrice.
• They will also be the first since their illustrious compatriots to taste glory for three straight seasons.

Standout Stat: India are the sole nation with seeded entry (men’s doubles No.3 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty) still waiting for their maiden Japan Open titlists.

Rankireddy/Shetty lost in the second round last year, to Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang.

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