The Japan Open, currently the third Super Series tournament of the year and one of the most iconic tournaments on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, this year celebrates 40 years since its first edition in 1985.

Many of the world’s top players vie for the titles in Iizuka from 9-14 April in a bid to add their names to the tournament’s illustrious roll of hour.

It’s a roll of honour that lists one ‘Brad A Parks’ as the winner of the inaugural men’s singles title in 1985, when the then three-day Japan Open was won by the celebrated founder of wheelchair tennis and the tournament finished on the same day – 14th April – that this year’s 40th edition is set to finish with the men’s and women’s singles finals.

The fourth edition of the Japan Open in 1988 saw Ellen de Lange, now ITF Wheelchair Tennis Team Lead, become the first non-Japanese winner of the women’s singles title and the first of a number of celebrated Dutch champions, while 10 years later Australia’s Daniela di Toro won the first of five successive women’s singles titles.

Di Toro added a sixth women’s singles title in 2010 and currently shares the distinction of having the most Japan women’s singles titles with current world No. 2 Yui Kamiji, who is set to be this year’s women’s top seed.

Always held in such high regard by the players, the Japan Open was elevated to Super Series status in 2004, a year in which the men’s, women’s and quad singles champions were also that year’s Paralympic champions in Athens as Robin Ammerlaan, Esther Vergeer and Peter Norfolk took home the singles trophies.

The following year, in 2005, David Hall won the last of his men’s singles titles in Iizuka and the Australian held the record for most Japan Open men’s singles crowns until Shingo Kunieda broke that record with his ninth title in 2019.

Kunieda played his first Japan Open in 2003 when fate would have it that he met Hall in a three-set quarter-final that was the first career meeting between the Japan Open’s two most successful men’s players Reflecting on this year’s landmark for the Japan Open, Kunieda said:

“Congratulation for the Japan Open for its 40th year! I’m really proud of this tournament! The Japan Open has always made a great effort, the tournament kept showing a high quality of wheelchair tennis for a long time. It means a lot for Japanese players. We could know how the top players play, how much difference there was between world class players from other countries and us. As a result, Japan is the one of the biggest countries in wheelchair tennis right now.”

2018 and 2019 were key years for the Japan Open for very different reasons.

Gordon Reid and Kamiji made a unique piece of sporting history as the inaugural recipients of the Emperor’s Cup for the men’s singles champion and the Empress’ Cup for the women’s singles champion at the Japan Open in 2018.

Japan’s Imperial Household Agency presents the Emperor’s Cup and the Empress’s Cup annually to the champions of some of Japan’s most highly regarded sporting events. The competitions are chosen according to their size, history, and popularity. 2018 was the first time that the Emperor’s and Empress’s Cups had been awarded to the winners of prominent disability sports events, including the Japan Open.

The 2019 Japan Open would be the last before the Covid-19 pandemic, the pandemic subsequently resulting in the tournament not taking place in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

However, the Japan Open returned in 2023 and, while Kunieda won the last of his men’s titles in Iizuka in 2019, 2023 marked the start of what is possibly a new era of Japanese success as Tokito Oda was crowned men’s singles champion.

Kunieda and Kamiji last secured a Japanese ‘double’ as men’s and women’s singles champions in the same year in 2015. It remains to be seen if current world No. 2 players Oda and Kamiji can claim both titles in 2023, with the 2024 men’s singles field set to feature eight of the top 10 men’s players, with Kamiji and countrywoman Momoko Ohtani heading a women’s singles field that includes four top 10 players.

Six of the world’s top 10 players head the entry for the quad singles this year, including defending champion Niels Vink and current world No. 4 David Wagner who, 17 years after his first Japan Open victory, holds the record for most quad singles titles after lifting the trophy for the eighth time in 2018.