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The Vancouver Games bronze medalist, who led after Wednesday's short program, took full advantage of Olympic champion Evan Lysacek and Yevgeny Plushenko skipping the event.

Takahashi, 24, started his routine with a quadruple flip and did not look back having fully recovered from knee ligament damage which destroyed his 2008-09 season.

"I really felt the fans supporting me," he told the crowd before dwelling on his eighth place at the 2006 Turin Games here.

"I was able to perform my best, four years ago in Turin I had a difficult time but today I did my best."

He triumphed at the world championships, with an overall score of 257.70, only a month after becoming Japan's first Olympic men's figure skating medalist and he will now target a repeat in next year's worlds in Tokyo having put off retirement.

Canada's Patrick Chan, gyrating to the music from Phantom of the Opera, finished second overall for the second straight year with France's Brian Joubert, the only one of the top three to produce a quad on Wednesday, taking bronze after a tumble.

A debate has raged since Vancouver over whether skaters should be more handsomely rewarded for the most difficult jump.

Michal Brezina of the Czech Republic shone but ended up fourth amid a cacophony of boos from a favorable crowd.

FLAMENCO FLAIR

Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir earlier flashed some Flamenco flair to strengthen their grip on the ice dance competition as they seek a first world gold.

The Canadian duo, who topped the compulsory dance on Tuesday, maintained their lead by again finishing first and setting a season's best with an original dance filled with complicated lifts and Spanish hand claps.

With Friday's free dance left, Virtue and Moir have 114.40 points overall ahead of Meryl Davis and Charlie White in second.

The Americans, who took silver at the Vancouver Games last month, reached a combined 112.54 with their Indian folk routine.

"It would be amazing to be on the top of the podium," Davis told Reuters. "There's no doubt that there is more pressure during the Games, which take place every four years. The world championships are a bit more familiar territory for us."

Italy's Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, considering retirement after the worlds, stayed in third.

Turin's packed Palavela arena was spellbound by an array of imaginative folk dances, including Scots dressed in tartan skating to bagpipes and Australians dancing to a didgeridoo.

The women's event starts on Friday with Olympic and world champion Kim Yuna of South Korea the favorite.

(Additional reporting by Antonella Ciancio; Editing by Sonia Oxley and Pritha Sarkar; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)