Kakeru Kumagai

is a Japanese badminton player who competes in men's doubles. A left-handed player, he is a member of the Japanese national team and represents the BIPROGY badminton team. Partnering with Hiroki Nishi, he reached a career-high world ranking of No. 21. Kumagai won his first BWF World Tour title at the 2025 Kaohsiung Masters (Super 100), and was a member of the Japanese squad that won the country's first men's team gold medal at the 2026 Asia Team Championships. A graduate of sport science at Nihon University, Kumagai won the men's doubles title at the 2023 All Japan Inter-Collegiate Championships.

Early career Junior career Kumagai began playing badminton at the Sendai Yamato Junior club before attending Saint Ursula Gakuin Eichi Junior and Senior High School. In 2018, he partnered with Yoshifumi Fujisawa to win the boys' doubles title at the All Japan Junior Championships.

The following year, Kumagai represented Japan at the 2019 World Junior Championships, winning a bronze medal in the mixed team event.

University career Kumagai studied sport science at Nihon University. Partnering with Kota Ogawa, he won the men's doubles title at the 2023 All Japan Student Championships (Inter-Collegiate). Consequently selected for the Japanese national B team, the pair made their World Tour debut at the 2023 Indonesia Masters I Super 100, finishing as runners-up. He formed a men's doubles partnership with Hiroki Nishi, training under former national players Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa. In their debut season, the pair finished as runners-up at the Super 100 Odisha Masters and the Kazakhstan International.

2025 Kumagai and Nishi claimed their first international title as a pair at the Northern Marianas Open in August, defeating compatriots Haruki Kawabe and Kenta Matsukawa in the final. Following these results, they reached a career-high world ranking of No. 32 in November.

2026 Kumagai and Nishi opened the season by making their Super 1000 debut at the Malaysia Open. The pair advanced to the second round, where they were defeated by their compatriots Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi. In May, Kumagai competed in his first Thomas Cup in Horsens, where the team finished in fifth place. is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tours are divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300, and the BWF Tour Super 100.

Men's doubles Year Tournament Level Partner Opponent Score Result Ref 2023 (I) Indonesia Masters Super 100 Kota Ogawa Sabar Karyaman Gutama Muhammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani 18–21, 15–21 Runner-up 2024 Odisha Masters Super 100 Hiroki Nishi Huang Di Liu Yang 13–21, 21–19, 25–27 Runner-up 2025 (I) Indonesia Masters Super 100 Hiroki Nishi Jin Yong Na Sung-seung 19–21, 21–13, 13–21 Runner-up 2025 Kaohsiung Masters Super 100 Hiroki Nishi Su Ching-heng Wu Guan-xun 21–18, 21–17 Winner

BWF International Challenge/Series (1 title, 1 runner-up) Men's doubles Year Tournament Partner Opponent Score Result Ref 2024 Kazakhstan International Hiroki Nishi Lucas Corvée Ronan Labar 14–21, 19–21 Runner-up 2025 Northern Marianas Open Hiroki Nishi Haruki Kawabe Kenta Matsukawa 21–15, 23–25, 21–13 Winner

BWF International Challenge tournament

Performance timeline

National team Junior level Team events 2019 Ref World Junior Championships B

Senior level Team events 2023 2024 2025 2026 Ref Asia Team Championships NH A NH G Asian Games A NH Q Thomas Cup NH A NH 5th World University Games QF NH A NH

Individual competitions Junior level Boys' doubles Events 2019 World Junior Championships 2R

Mixed doubles Events !! 2019 !! Ref

A

A

A

A

A

A

Hiroki Nishi Players Liang Weikeng & Wang Chang 1 0 1 –1 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty 1 0 1 –1 Takuro Hoki & Yugo Kobayashi 1 0 1 –1 Goh Sze Fei & Nur Izzuddin 2 0 2 –2 Kim Won-ho & Seo Seung-jae 2 0 2 –2