Olympic gold medalist Maki Tsukada won her fifth consecutive title with an ippon victory over Mai Tateyama at the women's national judo championship on Sunday.
Tsukada, winner of the over 78-kilogram title in Athens, notched the most successive titles after Yoko Tanabe, who captured a record six straight crowns at the open-category competition from 1987-1992.
Tsukada, who had a bye into the second round, defeated Athens Olympic 70-kg champion Masae Ueno in her first match and toppled Tateyama to score an ippon in the final at the Tokyo Budokan.
Midori Shintani, who won the open-weight title at last year's world championships in Cairo, lost in a quarterfinal match to Kumiko Horie.
Tsukada and Tateyama were named the same day by the All Japan Judo Federation to compete in the women's over 78-kg class at the world team championship tournament in France in September.
The selections are made based on recent tournament performances. The 12 other representatives from six other weight categories have already been chosen.