in 1956 The first edition of the world championships took place in
Tokyo, Japan in 1956. There were no weight classes at the time and Japanese judoka
Shokichi Natsui became the first world champion in history, defeating fellow countryman
Yoshihiko Yoshimatsu in the final. The second world championship was also held in Tokyo two years later, with the Japanese winning the top two spots in the competition for the second time. In 1961, the championship was held outside Japan for the first time, and
Dutch judoka
Anton Geesink defeated the prior world champion,
Koji Sone, in
Paris,
France, to become the first non-Japanese world champion. The
1965 World Judo Championships were held in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, and weight classes were implemented for the first time with the addition of the −68 kg, −80 kg, and +80 kg categories. Judo had become an
Olympic sport at the
1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo initially for men, and a permanent sport after a brief absence at the
1968 Summer Olympics. Despite this progressive enlargement, it took until 1980 for women to participate in the world championships. The first women's world championships were held in
New York City in 1980, and were held in alternating years as the men's championships until the
1987 World Judo Championships in
Essen, where the two competitions were merged into one world championship. The mixed championships have been held biannually since 1987. On the Commonwealth Games side, Judo was added to the
Commonwealth Games programme, initially as an optional sport for the first three editions in 1990, 2002 and 2014 but it is now a core sport from 2022 onwards. The women’s judo was included at the
1992 Summer Olympics. In 2005, the world championships made its debut on the
African continent in
Cairo,
Egypt. In the
International Judo Federation meeting held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2007 (during the
2007 World Judo Championships), it was decided that France would host the world championships for the fifth time in 2011. ==Weight classes==