Nobuaki Kobayashi

Kobayashi later admitted that he had been taping on camera Ceulemans' performances in a 1969 tournament in Tokyo in order to study the Belgian's playing style.

For more than three decades, he was the only Asian native (not counting Sang Lee who represented the United States at the time) ever to win a World Three-cushion Championship.

Two other players from Japan were close to achieving a world title but both were not very fortunate.

His son, Hideaki Kobayashi, was also a professional three-cushion billiards player.

[4] In 2012, Kobayashi was inducted into the Billiard Congress of Japan Hall of Fame.