The exact beginning of Japanese figure skating is difficult to pinpoint. As early as 1804, Japanese explorer and geographer Morishige Kondō published a picture of an Ainu man being pulled by a reindeer while wearing skates. However, the sport of figure skating seems to have begun sometime in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Junior Women Skaters, 2022
Men Category Awards Ceremony, 2022
Table of Contents
Japanese figure skating: An Early History
Skating began to gain popularity with high school and university students when American and German skaters visited Japan to share their skills. During this time, a translated edition of George Henry Browne’s “A Skating Primer” also became popular. Organized skating clubs began cropping up in the early 1920s, though the instructors relied primarily on translated literature rather than their own skill or expertise. By 1929, the Japanese Skating Federation (the “JSF”) had been established.
Japan Skating Federation, 2022
Kazuyoshi Oimatsu, part of the federation’s first Olympic team, finished ninth at the Lake Placid, New York, Olympic Winter Games in 1932. The first woman to represent Japan at the Winter Games was Etsuko Inada in 1936. At the age of 12, she finished 10th out of 23 competitors at the Games. Inada went on to win seven national championships.
Etsuko Inada at 12 yrs. old
Japan did not return to the Winter Olympics for figure skating until 1960 due to the Second World War. By this time Nobuo Satō was a rising star in Japan. He dominated the sport domestically for a decade, winning 10 consecutive national titles from 1957 to 1966. This record still stands today.
Nobuo Satō, 1959
Satō also achieved Japan’s best performance at the time in the 1965 World Championships, placing fourth out of twenty. He was invited to join the medalists on their tour, but he departed before it was over so that he could compete at the national championships.
Mao Asada with Coach Nobuo Satō
After placing fifth in the 1966 World Championships, Satō retired and started coaching. He went on to marry Kumiko Okawa, a two-time national lady’s champion, and their daughter Yuka Satō won the 1994 World Championships under his coaching. His other famous pupils included Mao Asada, Miki Ando and Yukari Nakano.
Yuka and Nobuo Satō
Nobuo and Kumiko Satō with Mao Asada
Satō also coached Tsuguhiko Kozuka, a three-time national champion, and his son Takahiko Kozuka, the 2011 World silver medalist.
When Japan hosted the World Championships for the first time in Tokyo in 1977, Minoru Sano won the nation’s first medal with a bronze placing.
Minoru Sano 1977
Emi Watanabe won bronze in 1979 to become Japan’s first female medalist in a World Championship. In an unusual move at the time, Watanabe moved to the United States to be coached by Felix Kaspar. She went on to have a successful career as a coach back in Japan, helping to further popularize the sport throughout the country.
Emi Watanabe 1979
Fumio Igarashi and Mitsuru Matsumura were the rising stars of the early 80s. Igarashi finished fourth at the 1981 World Championships and won the NHK Trophy twice, and Matsumura finished sixth in the 1980 World Championships.
Fumio Igarashi 1981
Japanese figure skating: The Rise of a Changing Approach
During the 1980s, Midori Ito and her coach, Machiko Yamada, completely revolutionized women’s figure skating in Japan. Yamada had competed during the 1960s, at a time when figure skaters were coached in strict fear-based environments. Yamada was determined to coach not with the sole purpose of producing successful skaters, but with a focus on teaching skaters to love the sport. She first noticed 5-year-old Ito because of her obvious enjoyment of skating, rather than for her outstanding talent.
It didn’t take long for Ito to excel with Yamada’s teachings, and she had mastered four different triple leaps while still in elementary school. Following trouble in her home life, Ito moved in with Yamada at the age of 10. This motivated Ito to succeed in skating so that she would be able to support herself financially in the future.
Midori Ito and Machiko Yamada
Yamada was determined to set Ito apart from the other global figure skaters atof the time. She believed that in order to become number one, Japan needed to stop watching and copying what other skaters around the world were doing. With this ideology, she trained Ito to perfect the triple axel, a leap that had never been completed by a woman. Ito successfully completed the triple axel for the first time in an international competition at the 1988 NHK Trophy. The following year, she became the first Asian to ever win a World title, earning her international fame.
Midori Ito completes a triple axel
Before Ito, Tokyo had been the hub of Japanese skating, and those who trained elsewhere had to work harder to earn recognition. Having grown up in Nagoya, Ito’s success led to a the sport expanding around the country.
Under Yamada’s direction Ito went on to win nine national championships, the 1989 World title, and an Olympic silver medal in 1992, going far beyond her original goal.
Midori Ito, 1992
Ito finished second to American Kristi Yamaguchi at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, despite being the favorite going into the competition. However, her life story inspired a new generation of female skaters.
Midori Ito, 1992
As of 2021, Yamada was still coaching out of the same rink in Nagoya where she once guided Ito to worldwide success decades ago.
Machiko Yamada, 2021
Women Rise to Spotlight
Ito undoubtedly served as an inspiration for the generations that came after her, and her success produced many skaters for the Japan Skating Federation. Noriko Shirota, JSF assistant director and JSF director from 1994, believed that Japan needed to focus on strengthening its team as a whole rather than relying on one great skater.
Midori Ito and Noriko Shirota
Aiming to recognize and nurture young talent throughout Japan, Shirota and the JSF team created a Youth Development Summer Camp in 1992. Around 100 skaters between the ages of 8 and 12 from across the country were chosen to attend the first camp. With the intention of encouraging the development of a competitive spirit, the young skaters were able to meet their fellow competitors and challenge themselves against each other. At the same time, the JSF could monitor the group for potential future stars. As part of that program, young skaters were sent to international competitions to get exposure from a young age. These initiatives have been crucial in developing a steady stream of gifted young skaters. In the following years, well-known skaters like Fumie Suguri, Daisuke Takahashi, Miki Ando, Mao Asada, and Yuzuru Hanyu all benefited from these development camps.
Fumie Suguri, 2006
Daisuke Takahashi, 2022
Miki Ando, 2022
Mao Asada, 2022
Yuzuru Hanyu, 2022
Shizuka Arakawa was one of the biggest discoveries from the first camp. Six years later, the 16-year-old athlete competed for Japan in the 1998 Winter Olympics and placed 13th overall.
Shizuka Arakawa, 1998
In the 2004 World Champions in Dortmund, Germany, Arakawa surprised everyone by winning the World Title. Even Arakawa herself had never imagined winning gold, but had wanted to give the best performance possible before retiring.
Shizuka Arakawa, 2004
Following her surprise success, Arakawa was pressured into putting off her retirement and training for the 2006 Olympic Games. In the following months, the JSF’s investment in its young skaters began to pay off, as Japanese women began to dominate around the world. Miki Ando won the Junior Grand Prix Final, Fumie Suguri won the senior Grand Prix Final, and Yukina Ota won the Four Continents competition.
Shizuka Arakawa, 2004
Fumie Suguri, Miki Ando, and Mao Asada 2004
Yukina Ota, 2004
In the lead up to the 2006 Olympics, the competitive environment fostered by the JSF since the 1990s had developed a large pool of excellent skaters. Fumie Suguri, Shizuka Arakawa and Miki Ando were ultimately selected to represent Japan following an intense national competition. Suguri, a two-time World bronze medalist, was the only woman to have landed a quadruple jump, and Arakawa became the 2004 World Champion.
Shizuka Arakawa, 2006
Miki Ando, 2006
Yukari Nakano, 2006
Ultimately, Arakawa went on to make history by winning the Olympic gold medal in figure skating, the first time an Asian athlete had ever done so. Her achievement was even more special because it was the only medal won by Japan in those games. Like Ito, 14 years before her, Arakawa sparked a wave of interest in figure skating around Japan. Her success indicated that the JSF’s plan to build up a strong team and develop depth in the skating community had worked.
Shizuka Arakawa, 2006
In the years that followed, sisters Mai and Mao Asada began to rise up the ranks of Japanese figure skating. Mao, who was inspired by Ito to begin skating at the age of 5, was only 13 years old when she landed a triple axel – double toe loop combination during a local competition. Mao went on to win the World Championships three times (the first Japanese skater to do so) and won silver in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Mai, though not as successful as her younger sister, won two gold medals in the ISU Junior Grand Prix series and placed fourth at the 2003 and 2004 World Junior Championships. The Asada sisters were both coached by Yamada in their early careers.
Mao and Mai Asada, 2006
Mao Asada, 2010
Male Skaters Step Up to Stardom
While Japanese women had gained international recognition in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, few Japanese men had been able to climb to the top ranks since Minoru Sano’s success at the 1977 World Championships. It was not until Takeshi Honda, who won the national championship at the age of 14, won back-to-back World bronze medals in 2002 and 2003 that Japanese male skaters began to take their place on the world stage.
Takeshi Honda, 2003
A trio of young men began to rise up the ranks to compete for the national titles. The first of which was Daisuke Takahashi who won Japan’s first World Junior title in 2002. After struggling for a few years to live up to that initial success, Takahashi went on to make history by winning bronze in the 2010 Olympics. He became the first Japanese male to medal in figure skating at an Olympic Winter Games. A month later, Takahashi became the first Japanese and Asian male to win the World title. His success on the world stage prompted the Japanese media to take male figure skating more seriously, and the corresponding increase in spectators at national competitions helped to bring more attention to the skaters.
Daisuke Takahashi, 2002
Following closely behind Takahashi was Nobunari Oda, who won the 2005 World Junior Championships. In his senior debut later that year, Oda medaled in both of his Grand Prix competitions.
Nobunari Oda, 2005
The third member of the trio, Takahiko Kozuka, has won the 2006 World Juniors Championship. Kozuka, Takahashi, and Oda competed fiercely over the following seasons. Each skater was determined to take first place at the national championships. This was an exciting time in the Japanese figure skating world. Not only did the fierce competition provide excellent entertainment to bring in new spectators to the sport, it also served to raise the bar at national competitions. Over the course of a seven-year period, all three skaters won the championship at some point.
Nobunari Oda, Daisuke Takahashi, Takahiko Kozuka, 2006
The rivalry intensified in 2010 when newcomer Yuzuru Hanyu joined the circuit. He won the national championship in 2012 and 2013, sealing his spot for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.
Yuzuru Hanyu, 2014
At the Sochi Winter Olympics Hanyu won the gold medal. He shocked everyone and became the first Asian man to win an Olympic figure skating title. Over the course of his career, he broke 19 figure skating world records and raised the standards of both national and international competition.
Yuzuru Hanyu receiving his award in 2016
At the Skate Canada Autumn Classic in Montreal in 2016 Hanyu accomplished another historic achievement by successfully completing the first ratified quadruple loop.
Yuzuru Hanyu, 2017
Hanyu announced his retirement from competition in 2022 with a career that included two Olympic gold medals and two World Championship golds. He is considered to be one of the greatest male figure skaters in history.
Japan’s newest male skater on the global scene, Shoma Uno, has reinforced Japan’s position as a global skating superpower. He is the 2022 World Champion and won bronze in the 2022 Olympics.
Japanese Figure Skating: The Current Landscape
Japan won four figure skating medals at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. The overwhelming success has put their rapid rise to global superstardom in perspective. Japan has not won a single medal in the 2002 Olympic Games.
Japan’s continued success can largely be attributed to its depth of talent. Tracing back to the development camps of the 1990s, Japan has cultivated a fierce domestic competition that has allowed it to dominate internationally. This continued success inspires future generations’ passion for the sport, and in turn ensures that Japan can continue to produce global champions. Despite Hanyu’s recent retirement, there are many young Japanese skaters ready and waiting to take his place and make their country proud.
The 2022–2023 season began on 1 July 2022 and will end on 30 June 2023. The main events include the World Junior, World Championships, the Grand Prix and Junior Grand Prix series, and the ISU Challenger Series.
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