At 50 years of age, cyclist Keiko Sugiura on Tuesday became Japan's oldest ever Paralympic gold medalist, winning the women's C1-3 road time trial at Fuji Speedway.
A keen amateur before she suffered a crush fracture to her skull in a 2016 cycling crash, Sugiura quickly became a force in her chosen Para sport, winning world championship medals not long after her accident.
She won her first Paralympic gold with a 25-minute, 55.76-second blast around the motor racing track at the foot of Mt Fuji. Her nearest competitor, Sweden's Anna Beck, finished the 16-kilometer event 22.27 seconds slower.
"I managed to race while keeping myself focused," said Sugiura. "My pace dipped (in the latter half of the race) and I thought I might not make it (to the line fastest)."
Also in the morning, visually impaired runner Shinya Wada won his second medal of the games, crossing the line second in the men's 1,500 T11 race.
"I left everything on the track," he said, while explaining that at 44 years of age this could be his last Paralympics.
He crossed the finish line at the National Stadium in 4:05.27, well behind Brazilian Yeltsin Jacques, the runner who won the T11 5,000 ahead of bronze medalist Wada on Friday.
Wada has one more event remaining, the men's T12 marathon, in which he has a shot at completing a full set of Tokyo Games medals.
Japan is guaranteed at least a boccia silver medal after Hidetaka Sugimura won into the BC2 class individual final where he will take on Watcharaphon Vongsa of Thailand.
Sugimura topped his pool after going unbeaten in three games, then won his quarterfinal 8-1 over Slovakia's Robert Mezik on Tuesday morning. The athlete with cerebral palsy then backed up later in the day to knock out Brazilian Maciel Santos 3-2 in the semifinal.
Vongsa will be far from a pushover, though, as he comes into the game looking to defend his title won in 2016 and with an eye on a fourth career Paralympic gold.
Japan had a disappointing day at wheelchair tennis.
Quad singles player Koji Sugeno was knocked out of his semifinal by Sam Schroder of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-3, and Momoko Ohtani was also sent packing by a Dutch player in her WT class semifinal, losing 6-3, 6-2 to Diede de Groot.
In the men's doubles semifinal, third-seed pair Shingo Kunieda and Takashi Sanada were comprehensively beaten by top seeds Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid of Britain 6-2, 6-1.
The only bright spot on the day for Japan came from Yui Kamiji when she beat China's Zhu Zhenzhen 7-5, 6-1 to reach the WT singles semifinal.
Kamiji will have to overcome Dutchwoman Aniek van Koot to win a place in the final.
"Before coming into today's match, there was a part of me that thought I can't lose before facing (van Koot). So I'm glad that I was able to win," said Kamiji.
Having lost in the singles semifinals in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and the quarterfinals in London in 2012, she says she is entering "unknown territory."
"Now that I came this far, I want to be aggressive with a mindset to win. I want to do my best so I can play more," she said.
Japan suffered defeats to China in both goalball, 7-4 in the men's quarterfinal, and in five-a-side soccer, 2-0.
The soccer result means Japan are relegated to the fifth-sixth playoff, with China advancing to the semifinals in their place. The goalballers' Tokyo Games are over.
At the end of the night, Japan's women's wheelchair basketball team had an embarrassing end to their Paralympic Games, handed a 82-24 humbling by the Netherlands in the teams' quarterfinal matchup.
The Dutch women built a 22 point lead by the end of the first quarter, extended it to 34 at halftime, 46 at the end of the third and did not let up, running out 58-point winners.
