The field for LA 2028 will be far more contested. It's still early to tell how competitive it will be, but there are at least 5 more up-and-coming players besides Harimoto.
Continuing from where
I left off (
11/12/2022 at 3:52am):
Hirano (2000/4/14)
Hayata (2000/7/7)
Ito (2000/10/21)
Nagasaki (2002/6/15)
Yokoi (2004/4/23)
Odo (2004/5/16)
Kihara (2004/8/3)
AOKI Sachi (2007/4/10)
MENDE Rin (2007/12/31)
TAKEYA Misuzu (2008/4/17)
TAKAMORI Mao (2008/5/15)
Harimoto (2008/6/16)
OJIO Yuna (2008/7/5)
Where Yokoi, Odo, Takamori and Aoki are affiliated to Shitennoji and Miki House. Given Yokoi's and Odo's zero international activities in 2022 and 2023, whereas Takamori had been playing weekly for the most part since May, 2023 and Aoki started playing again in Nov, 2023, I get the impression that both Yokoi and Odo will be passed over in the next cycle, much like
Nagasaki and Kihara.