Richard reached the quarterfinals in Tokyo, beating Sam Querrey and Yen-Hsun Lu on the way, but had to concede defeat against the top seed David Goffin.
His next tournament is Shanghai.
Richard suffered mixed fortunes during the last weeks. Not having been selected for the Davis Cup semifinal against Serbia, he had a confidence boost by winning the Szczecin Challenger beating Florian Mayer in the final.
Scheduled already on Tuesday thereafter, he lost in the first round of Metz against Dennis Istomin.