Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran put figure skating giants Japan among the great pairs skating nations on Friday as they won the country's first senior international medal in the discipline at the world championships here.

The four-time national champions held their third position from Wednesday's short programme to take bronze after their free skate to Concerto de Quebec by Andre Mathieu.

Germans Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy claimed a fourth pairs crown by a tight 0.11-point margin over Russian silver medallists Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov.

The pair representing Japan scored 124.32 points for an overall total of 189.69, to finish 11.80 points behind the Germans.

"I was very nervous as usual, but there was no pressure," said Takahashi.

"We'd already won the small medal (third in short programme) and that was good enough for me. But before we went out Mervin said we were not defending but attacking."

Tran said: "I said 'we're not going to defend for the third spot, we're going to attack'. We knew we had nothing to lose."

The pair have been skating together since July 2007 and Takahashi moved to Canada to train with Canadian-born Tran, 21, whose father was born in Vietnam and mother in Cambodia, but whose grandparents are all from China.

In the past four-and-a-half years the pair have won a silver and bronze medal at the world junior championships.

However despite their success it is still uncertain whether they will continue skating together to compete at the 2014 Sochi Games as Tran would have to give up his Canadian citizenship.

"I'm not going to make an official decision until the end of the season. Then I'll decide what will happen," he said.

Takahashi, 20, said however hoped their performances would inspire more pairs skaters back home.

"This is so special for us. I hope everyone in Japan will see us and they will start thinking about taking up pairs skating.

"Hopefully we will become a strong pairs country in the future."

Tran added: "It still hasn't sunk in yet.

"I'm very happy and proud to win this medal for Japan. They have supported us from the beginning."