Recently, the Japan Table Tennis Association updated its latest national team roster. The 25-year-old Motoyoshi Ito was not included in either the main or reserve teams. This is the first time in nearly 12 years that she has been left out of the Japanese national team lineup. Subsequently, her personal social media account was found to have all content related to table tennis deleted, and her information as a “Japanese table tennis athlete” was removed.
According to a report by Tokyo TV on October 17th local time, Ito confirmed in a written response that he voluntarily left the national team and deleted his profiles and related information on social media in order to 'start from scratch'.
She wrote: "As I thought about the future, I came up with the idea of leaving the Japanese national team. I want to be in an environment where I can think from scratch. I plan to take some time to re-examine myself, not just as a table tennis player, but as an ordinary person. I also want to broaden my horizons and face new challenges in life. All these factors led me to make this decision."
Japanese media reported that Ito has not yet decided whether to retire or continue competing in competitions in the future.
Public information shows that Ito was born on October 21, 2000, in Ibaraki City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. She will celebrate her 26th birthday next week. Her mother, Mienari Ito, was a table tennis player. Ito started playing table tennis with her mother at the age of 2. At the age of 9, she won the championship in the junior category of the Japanese National Table Tennis Championships. At the age of 10 and 2 months, she broke the record for the youngest winner in the female singles category of the Japanese National Table Tennis Championships, which had been held by Ai Fukuhara.
Since 2014, Ito has participated in International Table Tennis Federation competitions. In March 2015, she won the women's singles championship at the German Open, surpassing Guo Yue and becoming the youngest women's singles champion in the ITF Professional Tour. At the Rio Olympics in 2016, she helped the Japanese team, composed of Ai Fukuhara and Katsuhiro Shiikawa, win the bronze medal in the women's team event. At the age of 15 years and 300 days, she became the youngest table tennis medalist in Olympic history at that time.
After that, Ito reached the pinnacle of her career. In the table tennis mixed doubles final at the Tokyo Olympics, she and Mizutani Hayato defeated the Chinese pair Liu Shiwen/Xu Xin with a score of 4 to 3, winning the gold medal. This was also Japan's first Olympic gold medal in table tennis history.
After the Tokyo Olympics, her competitive form gradually declined, and she missed out on the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. At the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, she only participated in doubles and team events.
According to the latest world rankings released in October, Ito ranks 25th in the world. Under the Japanese table tennis selection system, he should have been firmly included in the 11-player reserve squad.
According to Japanese media, with Ito's voluntary departure, the "transition between old and new" in Japan's women's table tennis team has officially accelerated during the Los Angeles cycle. Sato Momoko, a player who won the women's singles silver medal at the WTT China Grand Slam, returned to the main team after three and a half years, effectively filling the void left by Ito.
