The competition took place at the Sumida City Gymnasium in the Japanese capital and was attended by by 120 athletes.

It was the fifth edition of the Russian President's Cup to take place in Tokyo, which is due to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The tournament served as a national team qualification event for major competitions scheduled to be held this year, including the Asian Championship in Tashkent, the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat and the World Sambo Championship in Sochi.

Tabakov believes the success of the event provided evidence the sport is developing in Japan.

"The tournament was competently organised with the thoroughness and meticulousness that are typical of our Japanese colleagues," Tabakov said.

"As for the sporting part, we saw a lot of mat wrestling typical of sambo. 

"This suggests that sambo is being developed in Japan and athletes purposefully go in for this particular martial art."

Before the event, a discussion group for referees under the supervision of the secretary general of the Japan Sambo Federation Jun Morita and Tabakov was held.

It aimed to help the judges improve their skills before officiating in the competition.

"One of the features is that the scorecard is passed from the table of the mat chairman to the table of the scorer by the winner of the match," Tabakov said.

"Every time this involves a whole ritual that is accompanied with bows. 

"The local athletes’ pragmatism should not go unmentioned: many of them have a double-sided sambo jacket - red from one side and blue from the other side."