Bon voyage: Abe siblings' journey to Paris 2024 begins this weekend

The road to Paris 2024 for Japanese judoka begins here.

After last year's triumph at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021, where the home of judo won nine gold medals, Japan's best and brightest will swing back in action this weekend in Fukuoka.

At the 2-3 April All Japan weight category championships, six Olympic champions are set to appear in a qualifying meet for the World Championships which take place in Tashkent in October.

With the world's best pound-for-pound judoka Ono Shohei giving it a miss, centre stage will belong to the Abe siblings, Hifumi and Uta.

At Tokyo 2020, Hifumi and Uta became the first siblings in Olympic history to strike gold on the same day.

For a country that had a challenging build-up to the Games through a global pandemic, the Abes were a sight for sore eyes at the start of a home Olympic campaign.

Stardom awaited the two following their highly anticipated success.

Often hand in hand and all smiles, Hifumi and Uta soaked up the limelight in the months post-Games, doing the whole celebrity circuit thing.

There were the TV rounds and magazine covers, guest modeling gigs and end-of-the-year awards shows, plus new endorsement deals.

After all the years of blood, sweat, and tears, it was time to let the hair down. It was party time.

But now it's back to work for Japan's most famous brother-sister act, who both have already said they will look to defend the throne at Paris 2024.

Their first steps will be at this weekend's All Japan. While for Uta, the title will be hers to lose but for Hifumi, it is the rekindling of one of the toughest, fiercest rivalries in all of Japanese sport.

Hifumi won the Tokyo 2020 gold with class but he may have fought his hardest battle in getting there prior to the Games.

In what will likely be the first and only one-off for an Olympic berth in the long history of Japanese judo, he edged Maruyama Joshiro in an epic, 24-minute bout for the last remaining ticket to the Games.

It was payback and self-redemption all rolled into one for Hifumi, who had lost to Maruyama at the World Championships in Tokyo the year before.

On Sunday, the two could square for the first time since that fateful day in December 2020 should they reach the final of the men's 66-kilogram.

New Japan men's head coach Suzuki Keiji has high hopes for both, regardless of who prevails.

"Abe's already told me he is eyeing not only Paris but LA", Suzuki told reporters earlier this month. "He is young and I expect him to live up to his words.

"Maruyama went through a very tough experience but we will be there to support him as well".