is a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 professional pool

Pocket billiards

Pool, also more formally known as pocket billiards or pool billiards , is the family of cue sports and games played on a pool table having six receptacles called pockets along the , into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play. Popular versions include eight-ball and nine-ball...

 player.

Professional career

He started playing pool at 16 and turned professional ten years later.

Okumura won the WPA World Nine-ball Championship

WPA World Nine-ball Championship

The WPA World Nine-ball Championship is an annual, international, professional nine-ball pool tournament, founded in 1990, sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association , and principally sponsored and organised by Matchroom Sport...

 in 1994, defeating Yasunari Itsuzaki in an all Japanese final. With the win, he became the first Japanese and second Asian to win a world championship in pocket billiards. Until Nick Varner won the title in 1999, Okumura was the oldest champion.

Although he won the world nine-ball crown, Okumura wasn't quite successful in the sport for the next ten years. In 1995, he almost won the International Challenge of Champions

International Challenge of Champions

The International Challenge of Champions is an annual nine-ball pool tournament held at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. It has always been broadcast on ESPN and is sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association...

 but Chao Fong-pang

Chao Fong-pang

Chao Fong-pang is a Taiwanese professional pool player.He won the WPA World Nine-ball Championship in 1993 against Thomas Hasch of Germany...

 of Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 bested him in the last match. He also was closing to winning the US Open Nine-ball Championship

US Open Nine-ball Championship

The U.S. Open Championships is an annual professional pool tournament that began in 1976 at Q-Master Billiards in Norfolk, Virginia. Today, it is held in the Chesapeake Conference Center, Chesapeake, Virginia...

 in 2000 but lost to Earl Strickland

Earl Strickland

Earl "The Pearl" Strickland is an American professional pool player and was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 2006...

 , 5-11, in the finals. He nearly had a shot for a second world title in 2002 but again was defeated by Earl Strickland in the semis.

After some less impressive past performances, Okumura showed dominance one last time, in 2005. He defeated Mika Immonen

Mika Immonen

Mika Immonen is a Finnish professional pool player, nicknamed "the Ice Man."He won the WPA World Nine-ball Championship in Cardiff, Wales in 2001. That same year, he was the runner-up to Corey Deuel in the US Open Nine-ball ChampionshipHe has represented Team Europe on thirteen occasions in the...

in the finals to win the All Japan Championship, a long-running tournament featuring players from Japan and the rest of the world.

Titles

• All Japan Championship (1979-1982, 1993, 1995 and 2005)
• Japan Open (1988, 1994, 1995, 1999)
• WPA World Nine-ball Championship (1994)