A new ‘badminton fairy’ has appeared in Japan and is becoming a hot topic. Maya Taguchi, born in 2005, is the main character.
Chinese media outlet ‘Sina Sports’ reported on the 13th (Korean time), “Maya Taguchi showed off her beautiful figure throughout the game with her lovely smile and delicate facial features.”
Taguchi plays mixed doubles and women’s doubles. He won the women’s doubles gold medal at the 2023 World Junior Championships and showed his potential by winning the mixed team event at the 2023 Asian Junior Championships.
Taguchi recently formed a mixed doubles team with Yuta Watanabe, who won bronze medals in the mixed doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, and won the mixed doubles at the 2025 Japan General Badminton Championships. In October last year, he took the top spot in mixed doubles at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Malaysia Super 100.
Although he has yet to stand out on the senior international stage, many fans are very interested in Taguchi’s future due to his beautiful appearance and outstanding potential.
Among domestic badminton fans, there are quite a few Korean fans who support Taguchi, as he has become famous as a ‘New Jeans Hani look-alike’.
Taguchi also expressed his determination after winning the Japan Badminton Championships, saying, “I will challenge the world championships next year with senior Watanabe.”
The media also expressed their expectations, saying, “Maya Taguchi is really cute. Let’s look forward to her debut in the 2026 season,” and “We will see how much Maya Taguchi has developed this year.”
Meanwhile, Taguchi participated in the 2026 BWF India Open (Super 750) currently underway in New Delhi, India, along with Watanabe, but packed up early after being completely defeated in the first match of the tournament.
The Taguchi-Watanabe pair, ranked 53rd in the world, failed to advance to the round of 16 by losing to Malaysia’s Jimmy Wong-Lai Paging (ranked 28th in the world) with a game score of 0-2 (10-21 21-23) in the mixed doubles first round (round of 32) of the tournament held at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi, India on the 14th.
Photo = Daily Sports / Taguchi SNS
