2025 JAPAN SWIM
- Thursday, March 20th – Sunday, March 23rd
- Tokyo Aquatics Centre
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview #1
- SwimSwam Preview #2
- Meet Central
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
- Live Results
The 2025 Japan Swim concluded tonight from Tokyo which means we’ll soon know who will officially represent the nation at this year’s World Championships in Singapore.
Two swimmers, in particular, saved their best performances for last, with 17-year-old Kazushi Imafuku and 18-year-old Mio Narita each breaking a record to close out their campaigns.
As for Imafuku, the teen scorched a lifetime best of 14:50.18 to win the men’s 1500m freestyle.
His gold medal-worthy outing overtook the longstanding Japanese national record of 14:54.80 that’s been on the books since 2014.
For Narita’s part, the Olympic finalist teen produced a winning time of 4:35.39 in the women’s 400m IM.
That not only qualified her for the World Championships, but it checked in as a lifetime best, slicing .01 off her own previous Japanese National High Schol record of 4:35.40 she established at last year’s Olympic Trials.
But there were plenty of other head-turning swims to close out the meet, including in the men’s 400m IM which saw its top 3 performers all dip under the 4:10 barrier.
Tomoyuki Matsushita, the reigning Olympic silver medalist in the event, stopped the clock at a mighty time of 4:08.61 to grab the gold.
The 19-year-old got to the wall ahead of Asaki Nishikawa who settled for silver just over a second back in 4:09.63 while Kosuke Makino, silver medalist already here in the 200m IM, punched a time of 4:09.79 for bronze.
Entering this competition, Matsushita’s best-ever performance was represented by the 4:08.62 notched last year in Paris to claim runner-up status behind Olympic champion Leon Marchand of France. So he sliced .01 off that prior performance for a new PB.
Nishikawa’s outing tonight was also his lifetime best, overtaking the 4:10.91 he logged just last month at the Konami Open.
Both men easily cleared the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 4:17.48 needed to qualify for this year’s World Championships, giving Matsushita his 3rd individual event (200m free, 200m IM, 400m IM).
Matsushita now dethrones American Carson Foster to rank #1 in the world and Nishikawa ranks 3rd.
2024-2025 LCM Men 400 IM
Foster
4:09.51
| 2 | ASAKI NISHIKAWA | JPN | 4:11.60 | 01/24 |
| 3 | TOMOYUKI MATSUSHITA | JPN | 4:11.63 | 11/30 |
| 4 | RIKU YAMAGUCHI | JPN | 4:12.81 | 11/30 |
| 5 | Zhang Zhanshuo | CHN | 4:13.40 | 03/23 |
As a reminder, Matsushita was last night’s 200m IM victor, busting out a big-time career-fastest result of 1:56.35 to demonstrate how he’s in fine form.
Akira Namba got it done for gold in the men’s 50m free, shimmying under the ‘A’ standard by just a fingernail.
Namba touched in a time of 22.03, just .01 off his 22.02 personal best and .02 off the Singapore cut of 22.05.
He was the only one to make the grade, as runner-up Juran Mizohata was over the mark in 22.16 as was bronze medalist Katsumi Nakamura (22.19).
National record holder Katsuhiro Matsumoto did his thing in the men’s 100m fly, capturing the victory in a result of 51.10.
Opening in 23.70 and closing in 27.40, Matsumoto was able to hold off a charging Naoki Mizunuma who settled for silver after hitting a back half of 27.31.
Genki Terakado, the 200m fly gold medalist here, earned 3rd place honors in 51.64.
Matsumoto and Mizunuma both dipped under the ‘A’ standard of 51.77, with Matsumoto adding this 1fly to the 50m fly for which he already qualified earlier in the competition.
Finally on the men’s side, Masaki Yura secured Singapore qualification in the men’s 50m back, courtesy of his outing of 24.92.
But Yura wasn’t alone, as Riku Matsuyama touched in an identical time to share the gold medal.
The time represents a new personal best for both men, inserting them into slot #5 among the all-time Japanese performers.
On the women’s side, 34-year-old Olympic medalist Satomi Suzuki successfully completed her trifecta of victories in the women’s breaststroke events.
She fired off a time of 30.36 to take the 50m breast and add the event to her lineup of Singapore qualifications.
The last time Suzuki won the 50m, 100m and 200m breast at a national championships was well over a decade ago.
Ichika Kajimoto cleared the Singapore standard in the women’s 800m free, powering her way to the wall first in 8:26.02.
21-year-old Kajimoto was the only swimmer under the 8:30 barrier as she put up a new lifetime best, with Airi Ebina also beating the ‘A’ cut with a silver medal-worthy 8:31.83.
Although 3-time Olympian Rikako Ikee already qualified for the World Championships in the 50m and 100m free events, the 24-year-old fell short in the 50m free.
Ikee clocked a time of 24.91, painstakingly missing the qualification standard by just .05 in tonight’s contest.
Japanese World Championships Qualifiers Through Day Four
- Taikan Tanaka – men’s 50m fly
- Katsuhiro Matsumoto – men’s 50m fly, 100m fly
- Mio Narita – women’s 200m IM, 200m back
- Shiho Matsumoto – women’s 200m IM
- Kazushi Imafuku – men’s 400m free
- Ichika Kajimoto – women’s 400m free, 800m free
- Miyu Namba – women’s 400m free
- Yamato Fukasawa – men’s 100m breast, 200m breast
- Mizuki Hirai – women’s 100m fly, 50m fly
- Rikako Ikee – women’s 100m fly, 50m fly
- Tatsuya Murasa – men’s 200m free
- Tomoyuki Matsushita – men’s 200m free, 200m IM, 400m IM
- Satomi Suzuki – women’s 100m breast, 200m breast, 50m breast
- Reona Aoki – women’s 100m breast
- Nagisa Ikemoto – women’s 200m free
- Genki Terakado – men’s 200m fly
- Takumi Terada – men’s 200m fly
- Taku Taniguchi – men’s 50m breast, 100m breast
- Toshinari Yanagisawa – men’s 50m breast
- Yasuki Fujimoto – women’s 200m fly
- Miki Takahashi – women’s 50m back
- Kosuke Makino – men’s 200m IM
- Kotomi Kato – women’s 200m breast
- Hidekazu Takehara – men’s 200m back
- Kodai Nishiono – men’s 200m back
- Ippei Watanabe – men’s 200m breast
- Chiaki Yamamoto – women’s 200m back
- Asaki Nishikawa – men’s 400m IM
- Akira Namba – men’s 50m free
- Naoki Mizunuma – men’s 100m fly
- Masaki Yura – men’s 50m back
- Riku Matsuyama – men’s 50m back
- Airi Ebina – women’s 800m free
said this earlier but pan pacs next year could be lit if the aussies decide to show up
I wouldn’t count on it. There are 2 weeks between CW and panpacs (CW is first). Don’t be surprised if Summer doesn’t come either
Japanese are BACK
INSANE amount of young talent all across the board
Seto might never make a team again
The Japanese comeback is on!!!!!
Prioritizing 400 individual medley makes a ton of sense. Other than Marchand and McIntosh those are not strong events internationally.
And that’s true more often than not. Far greater medal potential than having your best talents try to duke it out in sprints.
3x sub 4:10!? Japan is so back
Took the words outta my mouth, and no one is gonna be talking about this lol
And they were all born in 05 and 06, so they are still under 20 years old, great future for Japanese IM swimming.
Happy to see the Japanese swimming federation is no longer requiring ridiculous times to qualify for teams competing internationally. That may have had something to do with why they tended to swim faster domestically than on the larger stage.