Hifumi Abe

Abe has been chosen as an ambassador for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Abe won his first national tournament while attending Kobe Ikuta junior high school, winning in the under 55 kg category. He then embarked on his junior career while attending Shinko Gakuen Shinko high school. While still a high school student, he had won the national Inter-High School championships multiple times. He graduated in 2016. Abe is presently training at the Nittadai. He has been coached by Atsushi Nobukawa since elementary school.

The World Cadet Championships in Miami was Abe's first high-level international tournament. He reached the final, meeting Georgia's Koba Mchedishvili, and lost by ippon, settling for silver. The tournament was held on Abe's 16th birthday.

Abe won grand slam Tokyo December 2016 in 66 kg.

Abe competed in his second Kodokan Cup and entered as the defending champion. However, Abe looked off-form, not scoring a single point until the bronze medal match, where he used osoto gari and kosoto gari for an awasete ippon. His bid to defend his title failed in the third round when eventual finalist Joshiro Maruyama scored a yuko with tomoe nage. According to Abe, he felt that with this tournament loss, he would be unable to qualify for the 2016 Olympics.

In his first tournament of 2016, and the first as a university student, Abe competed at his second All-Japan Championships. He looked to be on form and reached the semi-final, where he met budding rival Ebinuma. It was a critical match as the national championships also serves as a potential qualifier for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and both were potential contenders as Japan's half-lightweight representative.

Abe planned to compete at the 2016 Asian Championships, but was sidelined with a knee ligament injury. It was reported he needed at least three weeks of recovery time.

Abe entered the Grand Slam in Tokyo following senior and rival Ebinuma's absence as the top ranked half-lightweight from Japan. An and Basile, who were largely considered the favourites as finalists at the 2016 Olympics, also competed. Abe faced Japanese-based Korean Kim Limhwan in his first fight and scored a waza-ari with an ippon seoi nage. He then tried to connect with osaekomi waza but was unsuccessful. Abe finally sealed the fight with ippon with a phenomenal single sleeve grip sode-tsurikomi-goshi.

Abe defeated the son of Japanese legend Toshihiko Koga, Hayato, at the 2015 Inter-High School Championships.

Abe competed in his first tournament of the year at the 2015 Grand Prix in Düsseldorf. He surprisingly struggled in his first fight, scraping through by yuko. In the second round, Abe defeated the Netherlands' Junior Degen by ippon using his favourite ashi waza, ouchi gari.

Abe is the current half-lightweight World Champion. Abe rose to prominence after becoming Youth Olympic champion in 2014. He won the Tokyo Grand Slam later that year, at just 17-years-old, beating then-World Champion Masashi Ebinuma. He was the silver medalist at the junior World Championships in Fort Lauderdale.

Abe faced teammate Sho Tateyama in an All-Japan semi-final. He threw Tateyama for waza-ari with deashi barai and earned several shidos, but continued on to the final with the former unable to score any throws. He met local Anzaur Ardanov in the final, and threw him for waza-ari with a solid osoto gari. Abe earned his first Grand Slam title since 2014.

Abe had won several competitions as a cadet including the Asian U17 Championships in 2012, and the European Cup Cadets in 2012.

Following his second fight, Abe found himself facing tough opponents, amongst who were two world champions. He competed against five-time World Championships medalist and 2009 World Champion Georgii Zantaraia in the quarter-final, and surprisingly managed to score a waza-ari. Abe tried to pin Zantaraia, however the latter escaped. Abe was nevertheless through to a semi-final match up against triple and reigning World Champion, fellow Japanese Masashi Ebinuma.

Abe rose to national prominence at the Kodokan Cup, his first senior tournament, where he became the youngest winner at 16-years-old, and the first high school student to win the Cup in ten years since Satoshi Ishii in 2004. His win was a surprise, especially in the third round when he defeated Masaaki Fukuoka in less than two minutes by ippon, with an uki otoshi. He defeated Yuki Nishiyama in the final.

Abe began training judo in 2003, at the age of 6, in his hometown of Hyōgo. He began competing in elementary school. His father, Koji, is a firefighter at the Kobe City Fire Department. he was often Thrown by Nami Nabekura when they were in elementary school.He said such an experience made me what I am. His name in kanji reads, "one, two, three".

Hifumi Abe (Japanese: 阿部一二三; born 9 August 1997) is a Japanese judoka.

Abe is currently ranked 25th in the second last IJF World Rankings before the Olympics, and only the Top 22 would be able to qualify. He is also the fourth Japanese in the rankings. With head coach Inoue recalling Ebinuma for his second Olympics as Japan's half-lightweight representative, Abe officially did not qualify.