Maharu Yoshimura

The native form of this personal name is Yoshimura Maharu. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Maharu Yoshimura (吉村 真晴, Yoshimura Maharu; born 3 August 1993) is a Japanese table tennis player.^[2]

Maharu Yoshimura
Yoshimura Maharu at the 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships
Personal information
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1993-08-03) 3 August 1993 (age 32) Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	61 kg (134 lb)
Table tennis career
Playing style	right-handed, shakehand grip
Equipment(s)	Butterfly Custon (ZL Carbon), Butterfly Tenergy 05 (BH, FH)
Highest ranking	15 (May 2016)
Current ranking	68 (15 July 2025)[1]
Medal record Men's table tennis Representing  Japan Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 0 1 0 World Championships 1 4 2 World Cup 0 0 1 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals 0 0 1 Asian Cup 0 1 0 Asian Championships 0 1 5 World Junior Championships 0 0 2 Asian Junior Championships 1 1 0 Total 2 8 11 Olympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team World Championships 2017 Düsseldorf Mixed doubles 2015 Suzhou Mixed doubles 2016 Kuala Lumpur Team 2019 Budapest Mixed doubles 2025 Doha Mixed doubles 2012 Dortmund Team 2017 Düsseldorf Doubles World Cup 2019 Tokyo Team ITTF World Tour Grand Finals 2017 Astana Doubles Asian Cup 2012 Guangzhou Singles Asian Championships 2015 Pattaya Team 2015 Pattaya Doubles 2017 Wuxi Doubles 2017 Wuxi Team 2019 Yogyakarta Doubles 2019 Yogyakarta Team World Junior Championships 2011 Manama Singles 2011 Manama Doubles Asian Junior Championships 2011 New Delhi Singles 2011 New Delhi Doubles

Life and career

1993–2010: Early life and background

Yoshimura was born in Ibaraki Prefecture to a Filipina mother and a Japanese father. He has two younger brothers, namely Kazuhiro and Tomohisa, who are also table tennis players. His first name is a Japanese transliteration of the Tagalog word "Mahal", meaning "beloved".^[3]

2011–present

In 2011, while in junior high school, he competed in the February Table Tennis Tournament Japan where he advanced to the top 12. He defeated Kazuhiro Zhang in the semi-finals but lost to Jun Mizutani in the final game. His achievements include the Asian Championships (New Delhi, India; the first victory of a Japanese player in the men's singles^[4]) and the All Japan Table Tennis Championships. At the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, Yoshimura won a silver medal in the mixed doubles event with Kasumi Ishikawa. In 2016, he competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the men's team event with Jun Mizutani and Koki Niwa.^[5] At the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships, Yoshimura won a gold medal in the mixed doubles event with Kasumi Ishikawa.

Career records

• Japan Top 12 Table Tennis Tournament (2011)
  • Men's singles runner-up
• World Junior Table Tennis Championships (2011)
  • 3rd in men's singles
  • 3rd in men's doubles
• Interscholastic athletic competition (2011)
  • Men's doubles winner
  • 3rd in men's singles table tennis
• Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships (2011)
  • Men's doubles runner up
  • Won men's singles
• All Japan Table Tennis Championships (2012)
  • Won the men's singles
• Japan Open (2015)
  • Men's singles runner-up

In popular culture

Maharu Yoshimura had a minor role in the 2017 film Mixed Doubles.^[6]

In a 2016 segment of the Japanese variety show Ningen Kansatsu Variety Monitoring (ニンゲン観察バラエティ モニタリング), Yoshimura and Koki Niwa disguised themselves as two old men and proceeded to shock normal folks in table tennis.^[7]