This interfered with the development of mahjong as a sport, and it was considered simply as home entertainment until 1998.

With that as a start, they also promoted competitions, on a scale of a hundred competitors, around China, including Beijing.

On 23–26 October 2002, the first World Mahjong Championship was held at the Hotel Grand Palace in Iidabashi, Tokyo.

[5] A hundred players participated in this championship, in twenty-five teams from eight nations: China, Japan, United States, Taiwan, Russia, Sweden, Netherlands and Bulgaria.

Mai Hatsune, the female mahjong player from Japan, won the individual championship, and Japan Mahjong Players Apprentice Selected Team B won the team championship.

At the congress on 2 November 2007 in the Foguang Hall of the Hongzhushan Hotel, Sichuan, China, it was decided that the world championship is to be held every two years and that Chinese, English and Japanese are the official languages of the WMO.