At the 2014 World Championships, Nakaya came in ranked number sixteen, and had a difficult match list with budding stars like Israel's Sagi Muki and Azerbaijan's Rustam Orujov. He managed to defeat them both by waza-ari and yuko, respectively. Nakaya then faced 2013 Asian Champion Hong Kuk-hyon, ranked number 32, in the final, who had equally difficult opponents in the form of Dirk Van Tichelt, Nugzar Tatalashvili and Ugo Legrand. It was an unlikely match up with unseeded finalists.