Yokohama 2025 closes the First Official Edition with a Grand Final between France and Japan

TICAD 9 · Yokohama Budokan · 20–24 August 2025

The first official edition of the TICAD Games closed today at Yokohama Budokan, alongside the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9). The five-day People-to-People programme — Kendō tournament, Bushidō symposium, Taiko performance, training camps across Tokyo and Yokohama — drew delegations from across the African continent, Japan, and TICAD Partner countries.

Tournament results

• Gold — Kiyoko MOUTARDE (France)
• Silver — Ayano AMIKURA (Japan)
• Bronze — Satomi IITSUKA (Japan) · Hagino NAKAMURA (Japan)
• Fighting Spirit — Patricia LOPES (Belgium) · Salma BEN AISSA (Tunisia) · Alex THIBODEAU (Canada)

• Gold — Koki SANO (Japan)
• Silver — Yuuto HIEDA (Japan)
• Bronze — Yoshinobu KUBO (Japan) · Stuart GIBSON (United Kingdom)
• Fighting Spirit — Gigi GREGORIO (Italy) · Malek MAHJOUBI (Tunisia) · Ahmed BEN AMOR (Tunisia)

• Champion — Kiyoko MOUTARDE (France) · 2
• Runner-up — Koki SANO (Japan) · 1

Around the tournament

The Bushidō symposium opened the philosophical dimension of the Games — a roundtable on the way of the warrior and its modern echoes across diplomacy, education, and African–Japanese cooperation. Speakers from Japan and TICAD Partner countries traced how chivalrous conduct in the dōjō translates to public life.

Training camps across the dōjō circuits of Tokyo and Yokohama gave visiting delegations open practice and exchange sessions with senior Japanese practitioners and senseis. Taiko performances opened and closed the festival days.

What's next

The second official edition has been announced: TICAD Games Miyazaki 2026 will mark the 70th anniversary of Tunisia–Japan diplomatic relations.

Full tournament brackets are hosted on Challonge — links and medallist portraits are available on ticadgames.org/editions/yokohama-2025.