To keep their dreams of a home gold alive, the Japanese men will have to overcome an all-European assault as they were drawn in Group C alongside Portugal, France, Greece, Romania and Hungary.

The Japanese men secured bronze two years ago in the German city of Dortmund and with the introduction of rising star Masato Shiono will be hoping to improve on this performance in front of their home support.

The championships will see the intense rivalry between North and South Korea renewed as the pair were drawn together in Group D alongside Chinese Taipei, Belarus, Sweden and Spain.

North Korea made history at last year's World Table Tennis Championships by beating their Southern counterparts to claim the mixed doubles gold medal.

The men's groups for the 2014 ITTF World Team Championships in Tokyo ©ITTF



China will be strong favourites to claim the title in both the men's and women's competitions having dominated the competition in previous years.

The men's team has picked up the title on each of the past six occasions and were drawn first into Group A alongside Austria, Russia, Brazil, Poland and Serbia.

The Chinese women regained their title in 2012 after losing to Singapore in the championships in Moscow in 2010.

The 2010 event was the first time the Chinese women had lost the title since 1991 and just the second time since 1973.

They will be up against North Korea, Romania, Poland, Austria and Slovakia in Group A as they look to reassert their dominance on the table tennis scene.

The women's groups for the 2014 ITTF World Team Championships in Tokyo ©ITTF



Japan's women's chances of pulling off a surprise victory in their home country took a huge blow before the draw following the withdrawal of star player Ai Fukuhara due to injury.

Despite this, the Olympic silver medallists will be confident of progressing to the quarterfinals after receiving a relatively kind draw against Chinese Taipei, Hungary, Belarus, United States and Australia in Group B.

The 2014 World Table Tennis Championships is set to take place between April 28 and May 5, 2014, with action set to take place in the Yoyogi National Gymnasium and the Tokyo Gymnasium.

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