Home favourites Hikaru Ono in the women's kata, Shiori Nakamura in the women's under-55 kilograms kumite and Hiromu Hashimoto in the men's under-60kg had all sealed places in the final at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center.

They were joined by Ryonosuke Kikuchi and Kazumasa Moto today in the men's kata, after they beat Ariel Torres of the United States and another Japanese athlete in Kakeru Nishimaya in the semi-finals respectively.

The women's over-68kg kumite is also set to be an all-Japanese affair, after Yuzuki Sawae overcame Kazakhstan's Sofya Berultseva 3-0 and Ayaka Saito upset Spanish world champion Maria Torres 4-2.

Tsubasa Kama is into the women's under-68kg final for Japan, beating Laura Alikul of Kazakhstan 6-5 in the semi-final.

Switzerland’s Elena Quirici is set to be her opponent in the final after edging Venera Zhaxybayeva of Kazakhstan 1-0.

Sarara Shimada won an all-Japanese women's under-61kg kumite semi-final 1-0 against Maya Suzuki, setting up a decider against Germany's Reem Khamis who triumphed by the same scoreline over Ukraine's Anita Serogina.

In the men's under-84kg kumite semi-finals, Mohammad Aljafari of Jordan thrashed Japan's Junya Eto 6-0, while Croatia's former world champion Ivan Kvesić edged past The Netherlands' Brian Timmermans 3-2.

Today's other category was the men's over-84kg kumite, in which Spain's world number two Babacar Seck Sakho won his semi-final 2-0 against Ahmed Elmasry of Egypt, with Ukraine's Ryzvan Talibov earning victory by the same margin against Germany's Nikolai Sekot.

The Karate-1 Premier League event in Fukuoka is due to conclude tomorrow with the bronze medal bouts followed by the finals.