It’s Christmastime, which means the All Japan Figure Skating Championships are about to get underway. The story this season is not much different than in the past—Japan’s prowess in singles skating will continue to be on display. It’s a couple of very talented fields, with the men being more consistent throughout this season and the women being less so. There are clear title favorites, but the rest of the medalists could very well be up for grabs among a bunch of contenders.
All Japan Championships predictions
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MEN Top 10 predictions
GOLD Shoma Uno
SILVER Yuma Kagiyama
BRONZE Kao Miura
4. Shun Sato
5. Kazuki Tomono
6. Sota Yamomoto
7. Nozomu Yoshioka
8. Takeru Amine Kataise
9. Rio Nakata
10. Tatsuya Tsuboi
For folks who were looking down the list and wondering where the comeback of Nobunari Oda is, he had a successful domestic qualifying run, winning Sectionals in October. But because he did not submit his return to competition to Japan’s Anti-Doping Agency in time, he couldn’t compete at Nationals this year.
There are probably six skaters here who have a shot at the podium, and all six of those skaters have had great success this season. There are 11 Grand Prix medals among those six men, including three different gold medalists with Yuma Kagiyama, Kao Miura, and Sota Yamamoto. And that doesn’t even include reigning and five-time champion Shoma Uno, who has been the king of silver medals so far this season but want to break that streak here.
WOMEN Top 10 predictions
GOLD Kaori Sakamoto
SILVER Mao Shimada
BRONZE Hana Yoshida
4. Rion Sumiyoshi
5. Rino Matsuike
6. Rinka Watanabe
7. Rena Uezono
8. Wakaba Higuchi
9. Mone Chiba
10. Yuna Aoki
It’s a total stab in the dark for the women for most of this top 10. There have been a number of standout performances from this group (and others) this season, but that’s also paired with a whole bunch of inconsistency. And when you have that in a group that is a deep and talented as this one, it only means there is a lot of chaos that could happen. I’ll regret this later, but I’ll say that there are two skaters who are probably most likely to be consistent—defending champion Kaori Sakamoto and defending bronze medalist Mao Shimada.
What about the defending silver medalist? Mai Mihara is in this field but she is still recovering from an injury that has hampered her training. Unless she looks in much better condition since her performances at NHK Trophy, it’s tough to see her breaking into the top ten here.
DANCE predictions
GOLD Utana Yoshida/Masaya Morita
SILVER Misato Komatsubara/Tim Koleto
BRONZE Azusa Tanaka/Shingo Nishiyama
4. Ayano Sasaki/Yosimitu Ikeda
5. Akari Kinoshita/Takahiko Tamura
6. Yuri Kunimura/Kalji Sakabe
There may be a changing of the guard in store here in the ice dance event. After Kana Muramoto/Daisuke Takahashi retired, the field became wide open for the new generation. Komatsubara/Koleto, who have won four of the last five titles, are no stranger to this event, but they face a huge challenge from the two new teams. In what is a rematch of Western Sectionals, where they finished behind Yoshida/Morita and Tanaka/Nishiyama, this could be the springboard for the new generation of Japanese dance teams.
PAIRS
GOLD Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi
With World champs Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara out most of this season because of Kihara’s back injury, it will be the new pair of Nagaoka/Moriguchi who will do an exhibition skate and take their first National title.