The 23rd All Japan Tournament presented a strong field of fighters from other countries than Japan. Russian fighters stood for the strongest challenge, and they even reached the podium in lightweigt and heavyweight. And that through a strong team of fighters from Japan, with the strongest profiled fighters from the county of Karate.
The lightweight final : Yoshiaki Kikuhara -Japan preformed well, and stoped the advance of Vasily Khudiakov - Russia. This Russian fighter had taken the 2.d place in the 3rd World Cup 2005. Yoshiaki Kikuhara took also care of a another strong fighter as he stopped heavy merited Viktor Karasyuk earlier in the tournament.
The middleweight had no suprises, as Kazuhito Yamada took another victory, with Ryutarou Hirayama second and Tomikazu Yoshida third.
The big suprise came in the stron heavyweight category, and that in form of Norichika Tsukamoto lost to former Champion Naohiro Nomoto in the semi final. The other semi final saw Russian Maxim Shevchenko take on Kiyohide Kuno with the home fighter taking the win. Kuno went on to defeat Nomoto in the final to seal his first major tournament win.