Kie Nakanishi

is a Japanese badminton player affiliated with the BIPROGY team. She and her partner Rin Iwanaga won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Championships and a bronze medal at the 2025 World Championships. The pair have won numerous BWF World Tour titles, including their first Super 750 title at the 2024 Denmark Open. The duo reached a career-high ranking of world number 4 on 11 March 2025.

Early career Nakanishi began playing badminton in elementary school and won prefectural tournaments during her junior high years. At Omiya Higashi High School, she began to specialize in doubles. In 2012, she partnered with her senior Nozomi Okuhara to win the National Sports Festival junior women's doubles title.

After high school, Nakanishi attended Waseda University, where she studied in the Faculty of Sport Sciences and later captained the badminton team. In 2017, she won the women's singles title at the All Japan Student Championships (Inter-Collegiate) and the mixed doubles title at the All Japan Student Mixed Doubles Tournament with Minoru Koga. That same year, she won the Japan Ranking Circuit in mixed doubles with Yuki Kaneko. For these collegiate achievements, she received the Azusa Ono Memorial Sports Award and the Sports Honorary Award. Nakanishi graduated from Waseda in March 2018 and began her professional career the following month by joining the Nihon Unisys team, now known as BIPROGY. Additionally, they reached the quarterfinals in five other tournaments: the India Open, the Thailand Open, the Singapore Open, the Korea Open, and the Australia Open.

2024 Nakanishi and Iwanaga began the year by reaching their first Super 1000 quarterfinal at the Malaysia Open, defeating third seeds Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong. Later in the season, they won five consecutive titles, which included their first Super 750 title at the Denmark Open. This undefeated run in finals also included victories at the Spain Masters, Malaysia Masters, U.S. Open, In the final, they beat the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists and then-world No. 1 pair Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning. The pair won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Paris, losing in the semifinals to the eventual gold medalists Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning. Nakanishi and Iwanaga achieved a new career-high ranking of World No. 4 on 11 March. In team competitions, Nakanishi contributed to Japan's bronze medal finishes at the Asia Mixed Team Championships and the Sudirman Cup.

Achievements World Championships Women's doubles Year Venue Partner Opponent Score Result Ref 2025 Adidas Arena, Paris, France Rin Iwanaga Liu Shengshu Tan Ning 15–21, 4–21 Bronze Bronze

Asian Championships Women's doubles Year Venue Partner Opponent Score Result Ref

is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100.

Women's doubles Year Tournament Level Partner Opponent Score Result Ref 2018 Russian Open Super 100 Chisato Hoshi Chow Mei Kuan Lee Meng Yean 21–11, 21–18 Winner 2019 Dutch Open Super 100 Rin Iwanaga Gabriela Stoeva Stefani Stoeva 10–21, 20–22 Runner-up 2021 Hylo Open Super 500 Rin Iwanaga Chisato Hoshi Aoi Matsuda 20–22, 18–21 Runner-up 2023 Syed Modi International Super 300 Rin Iwanaga Tanisha Crasto Ashwini Ponnappa 21–14, 17–21, 21–15 Winner 2024 Spain Masters Super 300 Rin Iwanaga Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi 12–21, 21–8, 21–16 Winner 2024 Canada Open Super 500 Rin Iwanaga Hsu Yin-hui Lin Jhih-yun 21–13, 21–13 Winner 2024 Denmark Open Super 750 Rin Iwanaga Liu Shengshu Tan Ning 21–18, 21–14 Winner 2025 Singapore Open Super 750 Rin Iwanaga Kim Hye-jeong Kong Hee-yong 16–21, 14–21 Runner-up 2025 Hong Kong Open Super 500 Rin Iwanaga Jia Yifan Zhang Shuxian 15–21, 17–21 Runner-up 2025 Korea Open Super 500 Rin Iwanaga Kim Hye-jeong Kong Hee-yong 19–21, 12–21 Runner-up 2025 Arctic Open Super 500 Rin Iwanaga Pearly Tan Thinaah Muralitharan 7–21, 9–21 Runner-up 2025 Japan Masters Super 500 Rin Iwanaga Pearly Tan Thinaah Muralitharan 20–22, 19–21 Runner-up 2026 Thailand Open Super 500 Rin Iwanaga Bao Lijing Cao Zihan 21–19, 16–21, 19–21 Runner-up

BWF International Challenge/Series (4 titles) Women's doubles Year Tournament Partner Opponent Score Result Ref 2018 Austrian International Chisato Hoshi Sayaka Hobara Natsuki Sone 21–15, 21–18 Winner 2019 South Australia International Rin Iwanaga Setyana Mapasa Gronya Somerville 21–15, 19–21, 21–9 Winner 2019 Dubai International Rin Iwanaga Alexandra Bøje Mette Poulsen 18–21, 21–15, 21–17 Winner 2021 Belgian International Rin Iwanaga Julie MacPherson Ciara Torrance 21–12, 21–15 Winner BWF International Challenge tournament