The Japanese women's badminton team won gold at the Asian Games for the first time since 1970 on Wednesday, despite its top player's slump, beating China 3-1 in the final and preventing it from claiming its sixth consecutive win in this event.

Singles world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi's horror tournament continued into the final, the 21-year-old again dropping the first rubber of the tie as she did in the semifinals and quarterfinals.

This time it was China's Chen Yufei that proved too tough, beating Yamaguchi 21-15, 21-12, in 38 minutes at GBK Istora arena in Jakarta.

(Chen Yufei)
[Getty/Kyodo]

With Japan in a one-match hole, it fell to Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota to even the match. The world's top-ranked doubles duo quickly changed the mood of the team by beating China's most highly-rated pairing of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan in straight games, 21-12, 21-17.

Facing off against He Bingjiao, and needing three games to put Japan into the lead, Nozomi Okuhara, ranked sixth in the world, took down the 2018 World Championships singles bronze medalist in three, 21-16, 19-21, 21-15.

With Japan just needing one more win to clinch gold, it fell to Olympic doubles champions Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi to close it out. And that they did, prevailing 21-16, 21-11 against Huang Dongping and Zheng Yu.

"China's our biggest rival and I am extremely pleased to win this," Takahashi told reporters after the match.

"It's the first time in 48 years. I believe winning against China means being a real world champion. It was really good," Japan's head coach Park Joo Bong said. "Back then Japanese players were really defense-oriented but the style has changed."

The coach said it was a "combination of offense and defense" that allowed his players to get many points near the net.

But he added that Japan should not rest on the laurels of the team's historic victory and instead double its efforts toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

(Nozomi Okuhara)

Okuhara said beating China's badminton team was "really big" and it "proves that Japan is truly the best (now in the world)."

"I was cheered on to the end, so I was helped by that support," she said. "Japan's current strength is that we have a sense of trust amongst our doubles players of absolutely scoring points."

Yamaguchi, who in the spring became the first Japanese ever to stand atop the world badminton singles rankings, however, rued her own poor performance.

"Overall, I could not play aggressively as my smashes did not quite go on the right course," Yamaguchi said. "Since I didn't have confidence in my smashes, I thought of taking another direction but my opponent grabbed the pace in the end."