The Japan Masters is a relatively new tournament on the Badminton World Federation’s professional tour. It began in 2023 and is set to be held in Kumamoto till 2026. The tournament is organized by the Nippon Badminton Association and is a part of the Super 500 series of events.
The tournament features five events namely men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Each event follows a single elimination knockout draw format where the size of the draw is 32 players or pairs. The top eight players or pairs are seeded for the event.
All matches follow the conventional best of three sets scoring. A set is won when the player or pair wins 21 points with a difference of two. Should the score reach 20-20, then play continues till one of the sides has a clear lead of two points.
As of 2024, a prize pool of USD $420,000 is on offer for the players. The champions of the singles events receive USD $31,500, whereas the doubles champions earn USD $33,180. The champions of each event also get a boost of 9200 ranking points, whereas the runners-up get 7800 points. The quarterfinalists and semifinalists end up with 5040 and 6420 ranking points respectively.
Being a relatively new event, no player till date has won two titles in any category. After the first two editions of the Japan Masters, China has seen five of its players secure a podium finish, followed by Indonesia with two victors. Japan being the host nation has only seen one champion lifting title in front of the home crowd.
