Zhang Jun, badminton doubles head coach for Team China said on Thursday that he believes China will defeat Japan in badminton at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, reported The Paper.

"Japan will be playing at home in 2020, which means there will be extra pressure on their players. Therefore, as long as we stick to proper training sessions and have the correct mentality, China will be able to defeat Japan," said Zhang.

Xia Xuanze, China's head coach for the singles team told the press that the national team has been scouting for promising young players and there will be more new faces attending the Olympic qualifiers in 2019. He also mentioned that the 2020 Summer Olympics might be a farewell event for Lin Dan and Chen Long.

At the 2018 Fuzhou China Open in November, China's Chen Yufei beat Spain's Carolina Marín and Japan's Nozomi Okuhara to claim China's first women's singles championship within senior badminton events in two years. Xia credited her success to the relentless efforts of all the players who kept their habit of exercising every morning.

China bagged all five badminton gold medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London but four years later they only won two in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, news about China losing dominance in the badminton world started to hit headlines.

At the 2018 Asian Games, Japan defeated China to claim gold in the women's event. Furthermore, Japanese player Kento Momota has occupied the world's No.1 position for men's singles for 11 weeks, making China take a new look at Japan. They may become China's biggest opponent in 2020.

According to Xinhua, China in 2018 won a total of 22 championships at the BWF World Tour, only two more than Indonesia and ranked second next to Japan that claimed 36 titles. There is still over a year before the Tokyo Olympics arrive and that is all the time China has to get ready to confront Japan in 2020.