Goki Tajima registered the decisive point for Japan in Zagreb, beating Jesper Smink in the men’s under 90 kilograms contest by a waza-ari score.

It gave his country an unassailable 5-1 advantage in the best-of-eight-matches clash at the Croatian capital’s Dom Sportova Arena.

Mai Umekita gave Japan the lead by holding down junior world champion Amber Gersjes in the women’s under 48kg. 

Junior world bronze medallist Genki Koga then doubled the lead after defeating Tim Banen in the men’s under 60kg category, courtesy of a waza-ari score.

Japan edged closer to the gold medal as junior world champion Haruka Funakubo beat Jorien Visser in the women’s under 57kg.

Funakubo had won their third-round meeting in the individual competition by ippon and she won again by the maximum score with a tate-shiho-gatame.

Hideyuki Ishigooka was next up for Japan and he maintained the whitewash by overcoming Daan Ten Heuvel, who had been drafted in purely for the team event, in the men’s under 73kg.

Ishigooka held down the Dutchman for 20 seconds to put his country on the brink of winning the gold medal.

Keeping the match alive, junior world silver medallist Sanne Vermeer managed a women’s under 70kg win over Honoka Araki, who stepped up to weight from her normal under 63kg.

Vermeer countered a tame attack for ippon with 36 seconds left to put her team on the board, but any hopes of a comeback were dashed by Tajima’s success over Smink.

The women’s over 70kg and men’s over 90kg matches did not have to be contested.

Victory secured Japan their ninth and final gold medal of the event, having won eight of the 16 on offer in individual competition

The nation’s head coach Kosei Inoue claimed he was pleased with the team and individual results, but insisted that there was still room for improvement.

"I am happy with the results and what I have seen here in Zagreb," the Sydney 2000 Olympic champion and three-time world champion said.

"The women’s team won six of the eight medals available, but the men’s team only won two gold medals.

"I hope they can show more in the future, but today everybody did well in the team event.

"The team event is very important for Japan; it is important to bring these titles back to Japan and to represent our country with pride and a strong performance."

Japan earlier beat Russia 5-1 in the semi-finals, while The Netherlands defeated Germany.

The first set of bronze medals were won by Germany, who overcame Kazakhstan 5-3 after an enthralling match.

The second set went the way of Russia after they beat Uzbekistan on points following a 4-4 draw.

Russia finished with a vastly-superior total of 40 points against their opponent’s 21.

The mixed team event is due to part of the 2020 Olympic Games programme in Tokyo. 

Russia won the first-ever mixed team gold medal at the 2017 Cadet World Championships in Santiago de Chile.

Japan clinched the senior version in Budapest last month.

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