| News from Japan |
| Masaya Ichikawa Japan Champion . . . Once Again! Masaya Ichikawa is seen here defeating last year's champion, Yusuke Fujii, in the semi-final match. Ichikawa was Kyokushinkan's 2nd Japan Champion already in 2003 so this victory marks a return to him to first place. Yusuke Fujii lost this fight following a penalty for accidental face punching and went on to fight for third place. |
| Yu Funasaki (shown here, right) took second place this year. The final match Funasaki vs. Ichikawa was like a rematch of the final fight from two years ago when in the 3rd All-Japan Tournament the results were opposite, and Funasaki defeated Ishikawa to become champion. |
| Yusuke Fujii, last years champion, took third place. He is shown here immediately following a spectacular knock-down with an ushiro-geri in an earlier round. |
| Suliman Kosumov, only 19 years old, a Kyokushinkan fighter from Russia, was the surprise 4th place winner. In his semi-final fight against Yu Funasaki the judges were unable to reach a decision and after the maximum number of extensions the victory was awarded to Funasaki based on tameshiwari results. (Since according to Kyokushinkan rules, victory is awarded to the fighter who breaks the most boards in in the tameshiwari round if a decision can not be reached and if there is less than a 10 kilogram weight difference.) Kusomov broke 17 boards and Fusasaki, 18! |
