The 7th All Japan Full Contact Karate will be held 21st and 22nd May. Year after year we are impressed by the level and the number of fighters at such a high level. With 5 categories in the men’s division, that gives us in total 274 fighters, 4 categories in the women’s division with 98 fighters in total. Again the land of Karate, Japan lead the way.

The mix of so many Karate styles and organizations sets the incredible high standard of this Championship. Every time one “get to know” a fighter, a new one comes up and it is hard to follow – but in a good way! The young fighters in the Championship does also count in. If we see it from an European perspective, we would not in our wildest dreams see a 15 or a 16 year old fighter go all the way to the finals – in the European Championship for an example. Ryuki Ushirosako and Mihori Suzuki, would be good examples, reaching finals in the JFKO championship and the All Japan Open Shinkyokushin at age 15 and 16. And who can forget Juri Minamihara?

So, we have tried to look into the draw, to see a if we can locate some of the merited fighters – and it should be very interesting beyond the normal, because many of them will be sharpen their skills before the 7TH WORLD KARATE CHAMPIONSHIP IN WEIGHT CATEGORIES, held in Poland this September!