In the Yokohama Championships, Chinese-born Japanese siblings Harimoto Tomokazu and Harimoto Miwa took both singles titles and a large prize, with their years of unsponsored family training leading to this historic win.
At the Yokohama Championship podium, siblings Tomokazu and Miwa Harimoto had just claimed the men’s and women’s singles titles and walked away with 540,000 in prize money
. The eight-member Chinese national table tennis team, also present at the event, received a combined total of only 470,000 in prize money.
As soon as
this news broke, the entire internet was abuzz with questions about just how much money
this pair of Chinese-Japanese siblings—who had changed their nationality to Japanese—could earn in a year. Many
people were envious of the prize money, believing the two kids had struck it rich.
The siblings’ parents were both former professional table tennis players from Sichuan, China, and in 1998, the entire family movedto Japan. In the early years after arriving, their father, Zhang Benyu, paid out of his own pocket to take the two children to competitions across the country. The family of four relied entirely on their own efforts, never relying on resources from Japanese professional teams. They honed their skills through a family-based, self-directed training model, gradually nurturing the two children into members of the Japanese national team. In their early years, day after day, they refinedbecame the cornerstone of their confidence in competitive matches.
Most people
outside the sport focus only on the eye-catching prize money for this tournament, but few take the time to carefully calculate the actual income and expenses behind the scenes. The Japan Table Tennis Association’s commission and tax rates are relatively high, and expenses such as travel,training, and competition equipment are all fixed expenses. In recent years, the Japan Table Tennis Association’s budget has shrunk, and it has even cut travel subsidies. Many players have to dip into their own pockets to cover the shortfall when competing away from home. The number of tournaments that generate substantial prize money each year is limited, and a standout performance at a single event is far from enough to sustain a stable income throughout the year.
The brother and sister from
Yokohama swept the men’s and women’s singles titles—an unprecedented feat in the history of international table tennis. Throughout their upbringing, they had neither the backing of a major sports powerhouse nor access to special resources; their success was achieved solely through the family’s unity and more than two decades of persistent hard work. It’s no wonder that Tomokazu Harimoto, standing on the podium, made thanking his parents for their sacrifices his very first words.
