Following six days of racing with places on the line to represent their home nation at the upcoming World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, JAPAN SWIM 2023 came to a close this Sunday.

The following day, the Japan Swimming Federation (JASF) announced its selection of 20 men and 20 women swimmers for the national team heading to Fukuoka this summer.

Among a number of outstanding performances, Rikako Ikee notably won the titles in all four events she competed in: the women’s 50m and 100m freestyle, and the 50m and 100m butterfly.

She cut the qualification time set by JASF in 50m and 100m butterfly and was selected for the individual events for the first time since she came back in the pool after leukemia battle*. Fukuoka will be her first world championships appearance since Budapest 2017.

Katsuhiro Matsumoto showed his world-class performance to the local audience. Setting a new national record of 47.85 in men’s 100 freestyle, he went to on claim a triple crown with additional wins in the 200m freestyle at 1:44.98 and 100m butterfly at 50.96.

Sixteen-year-old rising star Mio Narita defeated Olympic gold medalist Yui Ohashi in women’s 200 IM and claimed the double title by also taking the 400 IM.

Olympic medalist Daiya Seto won the men’s 400 IM and Tomoru Honda took the men’s 200 butterfly event while former men’s 200 breaststroke World Record-holder Ippei Watanabe clocked world’s top ranks in their respective events to earn their tickets to compete in Fukuoka.

Another Olympic medalist and Fukuoka native, breaststroker Satomi Suzuki will also make a return to the World Aquatics Championships made all the sweeter with this event edition coming to her hometown.

While the Tokyo 2020 Games were held without spectators, Fukuoka will be an important stage for Japanese swimmers and a great opportunity for the local swimming fans to watch the world-class races. Get your tickets to the event here. 

*Announced she had been diagnosed with leukaemia in February 2019, Ikee came back to swimming after a year-long fight against the illness and made a miracle comeback to the international stage at the Tokyo Olympics as a relay swimmer.

Full List of Team Japan in Swimming for the World Aquatics Championships - Fukuoka 2023

Men's Qualifiers

• Shinri Shioura
• Katsuhiro Matsumoto
• Ryosuke Irie
• Hidekazu Takehara
• Daiki Yanagawa
• Yuya Hinomoto
• Ippei Watanabe
• Shoma Sato
• Takeshi Kawamoto
• Naoki Mizunuma
• Tomoru Honda
• Teppei Morimoto
• Daiya Seto
• So Ogata

Men's Relay Qualifiers

• Tomonobu Gomi
• Katsumi Nakamura
• Masahiro Kawane
• Hidenari Mano
• Taikan Tanaka
• Fuyu Yoshida

Women's Qualifiers

• Rikako Ikee
• Rio Shirai
• Miyu Namba
• Waka Kobori
• Yukimi Moriyama
• Miki Takahashi
• Hanane Hironaka
• Satomi Suzuki
• Reona Aoki
• Runa Imai
• Ai Soma
• Airi Mitsui
• Hiroko Makino
• Mio Narita
• Yui Ohashi
• Ageha Tanigawa

Women's Relay Qualifiers

• Nagisa Ikemoto
• Yume Jinno
• Chihiro Igarashi
• Kinuko Mochizuki