Regarding Japan's victory over China and gold medal win in the table tennis men's team event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the words spoken by MIZUTANI Jun, a Tokyo Olympic mixed doubles gold medalist, attracted attention in China.

This statement was made by MIZUTANI when he appeared on a NextTV program, claiming that in the past, China had five or six players like the world No. 1 WANG Chuqin.

When asked about the depth of China's current player base on the program, MIZUTANI stated that "WANG Chuqin is overwhelmingly strong now," and added that in the past, there were five or six players like WANG. He then pointed out that "now, other than WANG Chuqin, players have fallen drastically," and "China's level has sharply dropped, relying solely on WANG Chuqin," and expressed his feeling that if WANG could be defeated, Japan would definitely be able to win.

MIZUTANI's remarks were shared on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, and various comments from Chinese netizens included: "Indeed, it feels like there's a bit of a gap in the generational succession of male table tennis players now," "If FAN Zhendong were there, Japan wouldn't stand a chance," and "The previous generation of players wasn't just 5 or 6 WANG Chuqins." (Translation/Editing by Noya)