The 2023 Japan Curling Championships (branded as the 40th Zen-Noh Japan Curling Championships) were held from January 28 to February 5 at the

Tokoro Curling Club The is a curling club in Tokoro Town, Kitami City, Hokkaido Island, Japan. The club has about 40 teams, including a team . Background Hokkaido Island, Japan and Alberta, Canada became sister province in 1980. Then, curling was introduced to ...

in Tokoro, Kitami, Hokkaido,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Both the men's and women's events were played in a round robin format which qualified four teams for a page playoff. After being pushed to May in 2022 due to the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

, the championship returned to its normal dates from the end of January to the start of February. The winning teams earned the right to represent Japan at the

2023 World Men's Curling Championship The 2023 World Men's Curling Championship (branded as 2023 BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men's Curling Championship for sponsorship reasons) was held from April 1 to 9 at TD Place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Ottawa was selected as the host site in ...

and the

2023 World Women's Curling Championship The 2023 World Women's Curling Championship (branded as 2023 LGT World Women's Curling Championship for sponsorship reasons) was held from March 18 to 26 at the Göransson Arena in Sandviken, Sweden. The format for the Championship featured a ...

respectively.

Summary

Both the men's and women's champions from 2022 were able to defend their titles in this year's championship. On the men's side, SC Karuizawa Club, represented by Riku Yanagisawa, Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Takeru Yamamoto and

Satoshi Koizumi is a former Japanese football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where t ...

, won their second consecutive and tenth overall national championship. The team finished 7–1 through the round robin portion of the event, losing their last round robin game to Kitami Association ( Kosuka Hirata) who finished first overall at 7–1. In the 1 vs. 2 page playoff, trailing 9–6 after eight ends, SC Karuizawa Club scored two in the ninth end, stole a single in the tenth end, and stole two more in the extra end for an 11–9 victory. Kitami Association went on to defeat Consadole (

Shinya Abe is a Japanese curler and curling coach from Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island ...

) 7–1 in the semifinal to set up a rematch in the gold medal game. SC Karuizawa Club took two in the fourth end to open up a 3–1 lead, and later led 4–2 after eight ends. In the ninth, the defending champions stole two points en route to claiming the national title once again. SC Karuizawa Club qualified Japan for the

by finishing fourth at the

2022 Pan Continental Curling Championships The inaugural Pan Continental Curling Championships were held from October 31 to November 6 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta. The event was used to qualify teams for the 2023 World Curling Championships. Th ...

. In the women's event, Team Loco Solare, with

Satsuki Fujisawa is a Japanese curler from Kitami, Hokkaido. As a skip, she has won the Japanese national championship six times. Fujisawa skipped the bronze medal-winning Japanese team at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games and the silver medal-winning team at the ...

Chinami Yoshida is a Japanese Curling, curler. She currently plays Third (curling), third for Team Loco Solare, which is skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa. The team won the bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Ca ...

, Yumi Suzuki,

Yurika Yoshida is a Japanese curler. She currently plays lead for Team Loco Solare, which is skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa. The team won the bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Career Yoshida was a membe ...

and Kotomi Ishizaki won their second consecutive and fourth national championship since joining for the 2015–16 season. After the round robin, Team Fujisawa finished tied for first with Chubu Electric Power ( Ikue Kitazawa) and Philosique Aomori ( Miori Nakamura). Since they had all gone 1–1 against each other, positions for the playoffs were determined through draw to the button totals, which Loco Solare had the best of, followed by Chubu Electric in second and Aomori in third. The playoff picture was complete by SC Karuizawa Club (

Asuka Kanai Asuka may refer to: People * Asuka (name), a list of people * Asuka (wrestler), professional wrestler * Asuka (wrestler, born 1998), professional wrestler also known as Veny outside of Japan Places In Japan * , an area in Yamato Province (now N ...

). In the 1 vs. 2 game, Loco Solare came back from a 4–2 deficit, stealing four consecutive ends to defeat Chubu Electric 7–4. SC Karuizawa Club also came from behind in the 3 vs. 4 game, coming back from an 8–1 deficit to win 11–9 thanks to a steal of five in the eighth end. SC Karuizawa Club then beat Chubu Electric 7–6 in the semifinal to eliminate Japan's representative at the previous World Women's Curling Championship. In the final, the Fujisawa rink got out to a 4–0 lead after three ends, eventually taking the championship 7–5 over SC Karuizawa Club. Loco Solare qualified Japan for the

by winning gold at the

Medalists

Men

Qualification

The following teams qualified to participate in the 2023 Japan Curling Championship:

Teams

The teams are listed as follows:

Round robin standings

''Final Round Robin Standings''

Round robin results

All draws are listed in Japan Standard Time ( UTC+09:00).

Draw 1

''Sunday, January 29, 9:00''

Draw 3

''Sunday, January 29, 18:00''

Draw 5

''Monday, January 30, 13:30''

Draw 7

''Tuesday, January 31, 9:00''

Draw 9

''Tuesday, January 31, 18:00''

Draw 11

''Wednesday, February 1, 13:30''

Draw 13

''Thursday, February 2, 9:00''

Draw 15

''Thursday, February 2, 18:00''

Draw 17

''Friday, February 3, 13:30''

Playoffs

1 vs. 2

''Saturday, February 4, 9:00''

3 vs. 4

''Saturday, February 4, 9:00''

Semifinal

''Saturday, February 4, 15:00''

Final

''Sunday, February 5, 9:00''

Final standings

Women

Qualification

The following teams qualified to participate in the 2023 Japan Curling Championship:

Teams

The teams are listed as follows:

Round robin standings

''Final Round Robin Standings''

Round robin results

All draws are listed in Japan Standard Time ( UTC+09:00).

Draw 2

''Sunday, January 29, 13:30''

Draw 4

''Monday, January 30, 9:00''

Draw 6

''Monday, January 30, 18:00''

Draw 8

''Tuesday, January 31, 13:30''

Draw 10

''Wednesday, February 1, 9:00''

Draw 12

''Wednesday, February 1, 18:00''

Draw 14

''Thursday, February 2, 13:30''

Draw 16

''Friday, February 3, 9:00''

Draw 18

''Friday, February 3, 18:00''

Playoffs

1 vs. 2

''Saturday, February 4, 9:00''

3 vs. 4

''Saturday, February 4, 9:00''

Semifinal

''Saturday, February 4, 15:00''

Final

''Sunday, February 5, 15:00''

Final standings

References

External links

Official WebsiteStreaming
{{DEFAULTSORT:Japan Curling Championships, 2023

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