Li, who won Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow in 2014, battled to a 21-15, 15-21, 22-20 victory to progress at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza venue which will stage the Olympic tournaments next year.

The Canadian will face third seed and home hope Nozomi Okuhara, who also needed three games to get past Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand 16-21, 21-16, 21-19.

Japan's Akane Yamaguchi joined her team mate in the next round with a 21-18, 21-15 win over India's Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu.

Yamaguchi, seeded fourth, will play second seed Chen Yufei after the Chinese player beat Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-18, 15-21, 21-12.

In the men's tournament, top seed and world champion Kento Momota survived a scare in his contest with Anthony Ginting of Indonesia.

World number one Momota dropped the second game but recovered in the third to clinch a 21-13, 20-22, 21-15 victory.

India's Sai Praneeth Bhamidipati awaits for the Japanese star in the semi-finals after he ousted Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 21-12, 21-15.

The other semi-final will be between Jan O Jørgensen of Denmark and Indonesia's Jonatan Christie.

Jørgensen booked his spot in the last four by defeating his compatriot Rasmus Gemke 11-21, 21-14, 21-13, while Christie outclassed Denmark's Anders Antonsen 21-12, 21-14.

Action at the BWF World Tour Super 750 event continues with the semi-finals tomorrow.

The tournament is the latest in the "Ready Steady Tokyo" test event series for next year's Olympic Games in the Japanese capital.