Judoka Naohisa Takato won Japan’s first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday with victory in the men’s 60kg final at the iconic Nippon Budokan.

The 28-year-old made up for his disappointing bronze medal in Rio five years ago by getting the host nation up and running in the Games with a win over Taiwan’s Yang Yung-wei.

Earlier, Japanese world number three Funa Tonaki had suffered an agonising defeat by Kosovo’s Distria Krasniqi in the women’s 48kg final.

Her silver, though, was her country’s first medal of the Games.

Takato, a three-time world champion, got the better of a tense encounter with Yang, winning three minutes and 40 seconds into a golden score.

Yang was called for a third shido (penalty) to give Takato, who lost in the 2016 quarter-finals, victory.