Tomokazu Harimoto and his younger sister Miwa have emerged as prominent figures in international table tennis, representing Japan while continuing their family's legacy in the sport. Born and raised in Japan to parents originally from China, the siblings have established themselves among the top-ranked players globally as they prepare to compete in the upcoming Asian Games in Nagoya.

The Harimoto siblings’ parents moved from China to Japan in 1998 to work as table tennis coaches. Their mother competed for China at the 1995 World Championships, a country historically dominant in table tennis. Tomokazu, 23, and Miwa, 18, began playing the sport at a very young age and have since accumulated Olympic and world championship medals.

Tomokazu, currently ranked fourth in the world, attracted international attention early in his career by winning the under-21 Japan Open at age 12 and becoming the youngest world junior champion at 13. Just shy of his 15th birthday, he made headlines by defeating former Chinese Olympic champions Ma Long and Zhang Jike en route to the Japan Open title. His younger sister Miwa, ranked third in the women's global standings, has followed a similar trajectory. She won silver in the women’s team event and bronze in women’s doubles at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, as well as silver in the women’s team event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Both players have beaten top Chinese competitors and remain popular in China, where they conduct media interviews in fluent Chinese as well as Japanese. Tomokazu has expressed a desire to usher in "Japan’s era" in table tennis over the next six to ten years. At the upcoming Asian Games, Miwa will compete in four events while Tomokazu will participate in three, both aiming to build on their past successes and challenge China’s longstanding supremacy in the sport on home soil in Nagoya.