{
  "id": 9288399,
  "title": "S. Korea loses to Japan, settles for bronze in women's badminton team title defense",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/s-korea-loses-to-japan-settles-for-bronze-in-womens-badminton-team-9288399",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-23T06:52:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/sports/20260923/s-korea-loses-to-japan-settles-for-bronze-in-womens-badminton-team-title-defense"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "NAGOYA, Japan — South Korea suffered a defeat against Japan in the women's badminton team event at the Asian Games, securing only the bronze medal in their attempt to defend their gold. Following a loss in the opening match, Japan went on to win the subsequent games consecutively, ultimately defeating South Korea 3-1 at Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium in Ichinomiya, located northwest of Nagoya, Japan. Due to the absence of a third-place match, both South Korea and Indonesia, the other losing semifinal team, were awarded bronze medals.\n\nSouth Korea's sole victory over Japan occurred in the opening singles, where world No. 1 An Se-young triumphed over her long-time rival Akane Yamaguchi with a score of 2-1 (21-9, 18-21, 21-11). However, Baek Hana and Lee So-hee, ranked world No. 2 in women's doubles, lost their match to Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto 2-0 (21-15, 21-19). Baek and Lee had also lost their quarterfinal match against Malaysia.\n\nSim Yu-jin was defeated by Tomoka Miyazaki 2-0 (21-15, 21-14) in the following singles match, and Jeong Na-eun and Kim Hye-jeong were defeated by Rin Uesaka and Kie Nakanishi 2-0 (22-20, 21-16), marking the last doubles match of the tournament.",
  "summary": "NAGOYA, Japan — South Korea lost to Japan in the semifinals of the women's badminton team event at the Asian Games on Wednesday, settling for bronze in its gold medal defense. After losing the opening match, Japan won the next matches in a row to knock off South Korea 3-1 at Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium in Ichinomiya, just northwest of the main host city, Nagoya, Japan. With no third-place…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Korea Times",
        "title": "S. Korea loses to Japan, settles for bronze in women's badminton team title defense",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/s-korea-loses-to-japan-settles-for-bronze-in-womens-badminton-team",
        "published": "2026-09-23T06:22:03.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Yonhap News",
        "title": "(Asiad) S. Korea downs Uzbekistan for 3rd straight win in women's handball",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/asiad-s-korea-downs-uzbekistan-for-3rd-straight-win-in-womens-handball",
        "published": "2026-09-23T08:02:47.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}