The 2002 World Championship in Mahjong was held at the Hotel Grand Place in Tokyo, Japan, from 23 to 27 October in 2002. The title for this competition was "The Festival for Culture and Sport in Mah Jong".
The competition ran in cooperation between the Ningbo City Mahjong Sport Association and the Japan Mahjong Organizing Committee (JMOC). JMOC was formed with four Japanese organizations including the Japan Mahjong Federation, the All-Japan Mahjong Society, the Japan Health Mahjong Association, and the Mahjong Museum.
Competition This championship is not certified as the official first worldwide championship in mahjong because it had been held before the World Mahjong Organization was formed in 2006.
Although it was offered to China at first and was going to be held in Ningbo, which is known as the origin of mahjong, the location was moved to Japan because a large event was going to be held there.
For this reason, the competition was held at the Hotel Grand Palace in Iidabashi, Tokyo. 100 competitors with 25 teams from 8 nations, Bulgaria, China, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Taiwan, and the US, took part in this competition. JMOC held primarily tournaments in Tokyo and Osaka.
Results The names are ordered as given name and surname.
Individual + Best individual players Rank Name Nationality Table points Mini points 1 Mai Hatsune Japan 26 898 2 John J. O'Connor United States 26 759 3 Yūichi Ikeya Japan 24 892 4 Aki Nikaidō Japan 23 893 5 Jin Li China 23 443 6 Tomohiro Yoshida Japan 22 691 7 Quanze Wu China 22 622 8 Caofang Huang China 22 583 9 Masashi Saitō Japan 21 232 10 Junhao Cui China 20 970
Team + Best team results Rank Name Nationality Members Rank Table points Mini points Total table points Total mini points 1 Young Pros Team B Japan Kazutoshi Iwasawa 11 20 787 80 2253 Ryōichi Kajita 16 20 446 Kenji Katsumata 24 18 329 Tomohiro Yoshida 6 22 691 2 Guangzhou China Jin Li 5 23 443 76 1113 Man Feng 25 18 226 Gangliang Yu 57 13 -139 Caofang Huang 8 22 583 3 Japan Health Mahjong Association Japan Jun Kashiwabara 34 16 43 73 1165 Noriko Maruyama 33 16 268 Masashi Saitō 9 21 232 Ryō Togamae 14 20 622 4 Tianjin China Junhao Cui 10 20 970 69 1432 Baomin Yang 28 17 492 Jianguo Li 39 15 -182 Jing He 31 17 152 5 Young Pros Team A Japan Takunori Kajimoto 12 20 655 69 1175 Nobuhiro Kishimoto 56 13 -60 Dai Osamura 30 17 195 Tatsuya Suzuki 22 19 385
Participating countries 100 competitors with 25 teams from 8 countries participated. Although Shinnicni Tokuda did not register for this competition and he was Japanese, he played as Kenneth Tokuda for the US team because a vacancy occurred.Babylon, ltd(Japanese)
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References