Hiroki Nobukawa (pic) is the new Meijin. He defeated in the final the experience Tetsuya Nakajima. The tournament was delayed after the earthquake of March and postponed to the last weekend of May. This 32nd edition has some less known names in the top ten. Reigning world champion, Meijin and first in the world rating list, Yusuke Takanashi became 7th. He already lost in the first round to Hidekazu Nagasaki. He did manage to win his remaining games though. Also the runner-up of 2008, Takashi Yamakawa was amongst the best: he became fourth.

Due to this victory Hiroki Nobukawa has qualified for the World Othello Championship which probably will be held in November. He is also promoting from four to seven Japanese DAN.

Several other top players did not reach the top 14 and were only allowed to finish six games: Masaki Takizawa (15th), Hiroshi Goto (19th), Yutaka Hagikura (21st), Seiya Kurita (23rd), Takeshi Murakami (29th), Tamaki Miyaoka (35th) and Hideki Kitajima (41st) won four games.
Former world champions Shigeru Kaneda (44th) and Makoto Suekuni (46th) only won three of their six games,wonnen slechts drie partijen. Multiple Meijin Sakaguchi Kazuhiro only managed to win twice and became only 102nd on 115 participants.