During a press conference, the members of the legendary Japanese duo, Wakana Nagahara and Mayu Matsumoto, announced that they will be ending their career as a pair. According to the announcement, Wakana Nagahara will permanently retire from the sport in March 2025 and will only participate in domestic competitions until then. The other member of the duo, Mayu Matsumoto, will continue her career as an independent player starting in November and plans to remain active internationally as well. Matsumoto is set to compete in the Kumamoto Masters tournament in November alongside one of her old rivals, Yuki Fukushima. This pairing could potentially work long-term, as Fukushima has also been left without a permanent partner due to Hirota’s injury.
However, we will no longer see the Matsumoto / Nagahara duo together, as their names have been removed from the latest world rankings, marking the Paris Olympics as their grand farewell event. The Japanese duo won their first world championship title in 2018, which they successfully defended a year later. They entered the 2021 Olympics held in their home country with high hopes, but they did not achieve a medal there. Throughout their career, Matsumoto and Nagahara delighted Japanese fans with 5 World Tour gold medals. Among these, the 2021 All England victory is the most memorable, but the gold medal won this year in India also holds a special place in their collection.
Japanese badminton is perhaps undergoing one of the biggest generational shifts this year. Several players, including Kento Momota, Kanta Tsuneyama, Akira Koga and Taichi Saito have announced their retirement in 2024. There is also significant transformation in the doubles category. In addition to the aforementioned women’s doubles, their top mixed doubles duo, Watanabe/Higashino, has also dissolved and the future of the former world champions Hoki/Kobayashi is also highly uncertain.
Currently, the announcements are not always clear, as some players are only retiring from international competitions while continuing to play actively in their home country, such as in club matches. There are also competitors who have been removed from the national team but may still appear internationally as independents. While most federations do not look favorably on this, the BWF is striving to support players so that they can continue to compete without national federation backing.