Slovakia tied it late in regulation, survived a 10-minute 3-on-3 overtime, then won it in a shootout to advance to the semifinals.
Sochi gold medalist Joergen Graabak and fellow Norwegian Jens Luraas Oftebro took the lead from Watabe and held on for the top two spots.
Gold medalist Austria saves its best for last in the final round, with Slovenia and Germany placing second and third, respectively.
“Will these be my last Olympic Games? The answer is I don’t know,” the two-time gold medalist said.
“I really risked everything in the second run because I wanted not just the medal, I wanted the gold medal,” the Swiss champion said.
The 25-year-old becomes only the second Japanese to medal on both hills at the same Olympics, after Kazuyoshi Funaki in 1998 in Nagano.
Skip Satsuki Fujisawa’s 97% accuracy in the draw was instrumental in the team’s result.
They have become Xi Jinping’s showcase for thumbing his nose at Western critics, from athlete rights and human rights to international doping rules and the truth...
Misaki Oshigiri and Momoka Horikawa, Japan’s two skaters in the event, set personal-best times.
Hanae Kubo scored the dramatic winning goal in Japan’s final match of the ice hockey tournament's preliminary round.
Dutch superstar Ireen Wust defended her 2018 Pyeongchang Games title and collected her sixth overall Olympic gold to hold off Takagi’s title quest.
"It would be really wonderful if he (Hanyu) could win again,” the Swedish great’s step-daughter Vera Schieckel said in an exclusive interview.