Looking back from last summer’s Hokkaido tour, the 2025/26 curling season, which spanned 11 months, is now nearing its end with only the Japan Championships in June remaining.
It was an Olympic season full of highlights: Fortius, representing Team Yoshimura, made its first Olympic appearance; the Japan representative qualifiers were held in Wakkanai; and the first All-Star Game took place in Sapporo.
However, when we review the results of the Japanese teams this season, a harsh reality emerges.
– Pan Continental Curling Championships (October, Virginia, USA): Women’s 5th / Loco Solare, Men’s 3rd / SC Karuizawa Club
– Milan Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics (February, Cortina, Italy): Women’s 8th / Fortius
– World Junior Championships (February, Tårnby, Denmark): Women’s 7th / Sapporo International University, Men’s 8th / Team Sato
– Women’s World Championships (March, Calgary, Canada): 4th / Loco Solare
– Men’s World Championships (March, Ogden, USA): 8th / SC Karuizawa Club
– Mixed Doubles World Championships (April, Geneva, Switzerland): 5th / Koana-Aoki
– Mixed Doubles World Junior Championships (May, Edmonton, Canada): Gold / Yuna Miura and Kaito Fujii
The gold medal win by Yuna Miura and Kaito Fujii is very encouraging news. Since mixed doubles became an Olympic event in 2018, only Miyu Ueno and Takumi Maeda (in 2024) had reached the Japan Championships final in their early 20s before now. This victory could inspire more young players to take on doubles curling.
Still, while SC Karuizawa Club’s bronze medal and Loco Solare and Koana-Aoki’s qualification for the knockout stages can be considered strong performances, the fact that no Japanese team stood on the podium at a world championship is not the desired outcome.
Most notably, missing out on Olympic qualification for both the men’s team and mixed doubles must be taken seriously.
All the teams mentioned were fairly selected through domestic trials. With more teams able to compete overseas, the level of Japan’s domestic selection is on par with other top curling nations—aside from powerhouse Canada—such as Switzerland, Sweden, Scotland, and South Korea, even though the selection process and number of teams differ.
So why does the national “JAPAN” team struggle to deliver results?
For example, SC Karuizawa Club’s Takeshi Yamaguchi once said, “There is a lot to gain by continuously participating in the World Championships.” Koana-Aoki’s Takeshi Aoki, after losing in the final Olympic qualifier in December, pointed to “a lack of international experience as a national representative” as a key issue.
Olympic and World Championship events are often held in large arenas rather than dedicated curling facilities. Teams must adapt to “arena ice,” which changes due to climate and timing, and to unique schedules where teams may play two matches one day and none the next. They also need to get used to ice made by Canadian or European ice-makers, track updates on stones being polished during the tournament, and communicate effectively in front of loud crowds. These are challenges that can only be truly experienced by playing as a national team. The irony is that with such a high level of domestic competition, it’s harder to be consistently selected as a national representative.
Furthermore, starting next season, the Pan Continental Championships, which also served as qualifiers for Asia Pacific and the Americas, will be abolished as the World Championships expand to 18 teams. This means Japan will lose valuable competition opportunities as a national team.
With the strengthening of the national team becoming a major challenge alongside the development of individual teams, the Japan Curling Association has dissolved its previous reinforcement committee and will launch a new Strategic Reinforcement Office next season, which had been planned since last year. The office will be headed by Ayumi Ogasawara, a three-time Olympian including Sochi 2014, with Hiroshi Sato, who coached the Hokkaido Bank Fortius and Hokkaido Bank Lilars and represented Japan at Nagano 1998, and Yuta Matsumura, who retired in 2025, among its members.
The association has set long-term goals: by the 2030 French Alps Olympics, to have “five men’s teams in the world top 30, five women’s teams in the top 20, and three mixed doubles teams in the top 20”; and by 2050, to “always occupy a spot on the podium in international competitions across all events.”
Specific measures are expected to be announced later, but there is already news that Loco Solare’s Satsuki Fujisawa and Yurika Suzuki will return to mixed doubles next season after a three-year hiatus.
Ogasawara has long believed that “success at the Olympics is the best way to promote curling.” She has witnessed the sport’s growth in Japan since the Nagano Olympics, through her own appearances in Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006, to the Vancouver 2010 Games where Mari Motohashi (Loco Solare board member) and Kotomi Ishizaki (commentator) competed, Sochi 2014 where she returned after childbirth, PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022 where Loco Solare won Japan’s first Olympic medals in curling, and now Sayaka Yoshimura and others carrying the baton. Women’s Olympic participation has been a lifeline for Japanese curling, sustained by many athletes over the years. Having someone who understands this better than anyone at the top of the reinforcement structure is undoubtedly positive.
The task ahead is to face the current situation, strengthen the foundation, and enhance development from the top to junior levels. It won’t be an easy path, but with multiple strong teams, supportive companies, passionate and skilled athletes, and many dedicated fans, Japanese curling can achieve it. With fewer representative matches to play, “JAPAN” must become stronger through diverse and broad-based efforts.
