Japan at the 2018 Winter Olympics explained

Noc:	JPN
Nocname:	Japanese Olympic Committee
Games:	Winter Olympics
Year:	2018
Flagcaption:	Flag of Japan
Location:	Pyeongchang, South Korea
Date:	February 9–25, 2018
Competitors:	124
Sports:	13
Flagbearer:	Noriaki Kasai (opening)^[1]
Rank:	11
Gold:	4
Silver:	5
Bronze:	4
Appearances:	auto

Japan competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from 9 to 25 February 2018, with 124 competitors in 13 sports. They won 13 medals in total, four gold, five silver and four bronze, ranking 11th in the medal table. Six medals of those were won in the speed skating events.

Ski jumper Noriaki Kasai was chosen to be the flag bearer during the opening ceremony. On 9 February 2018, on the opening day of the Games, he became the first athlete in history to participate in 8 different Winter Olympics.^[2] The previous record was from the Russian luger Albert Demchenko, with 7 participations.

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
			Women's team pursuit

Medals by sport
Sport	bgcolor=#f7f6a8		bgcolor=#dce5e5		bgcolor=#ffdab9		Total
Speed skating	3	2	1	6
Figure skating	1	1	0	2
Nordic combined	0	1	0	1
Snowboarding	0	1	0	1
Curling	0	0	1	1
Freestyle skiing	0	0	1	1
Ski jumping	0	0	1	1
Total	4	5	4	13

Competitors

The following is the list of the number of competitors participating at the Games per sport/discipline.

width=180	Sport	width=55	Men	width=55	Women	width=55	Total
Alpine skiing	2	2	4
Biathlon	1	5	6
Cross-country skiing	1	1	2
Curling	5	5	10
Figure skating	5	4	9
Freestyle skiing	6	5	11
Ice hockey	0	23	23
Nordic combined	5	0	5
Short track speed skating	5	5	10
Skeleton	2	1	3
Ski jumping	5	4	9
Snowboarding	7	9	16
Speed skating	8	8	16
Total	52	72	124

Alpine skiing

See main article: article, Alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification.

Athlete	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Total
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Tomoya Ishii	Men's giant slalom	1:12.43	35	1:12.35	29	2:24.78	30
Naoki Yuasa	Men's slalom	52.89	36
Asa Ando	Women's slalom
Haruna Ishikawa	Women's giant slalom	1:16.49	33	1:12.50	31	2:28.99	33

Biathlon

See main article: article, Biathlon at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Biathlon at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification. Based on their Nations Cup ranking in the 2016–17 Biathlon World Cup, Japan has qualified 1 man and 5 women.^[3]

Athlete	Event	Time	Misses	Rank
align=left rowspan=2	Mikito Tachizaki	Men's sprint	27:27.1	3 (0+3)	84
Men's individual	54:11.5	3 (0+1+2+0)	64
align=left rowspan=3	Sari Furuya	Women's sprint	23:21.5	2 (1+1)	49
Women's pursuit	37:02.1	5 (2+1+1+1)	54
Women's individual	53:11.0	9 (2+2+3+2)	85
Asuka Hachisuka	Women's individual	50:30.2	4 (1+1+1+1)	81
Rina Mitsuhashi	Women's sprint	25:53.1	5 (3+2)	85
align=left rowspan=3	Fuyuko Tachizaki	Women's sprint	23:19.7	1 (0+1)	42
Women's pursuit	37:07.9	7 (2+0+2+3)	56
Women's individual	50:06.9	7 (3+1+2+1)	76
align=left rowspan=2	Yurie Tanaka	Women's sprint	24:21.6	2 (1+1)	68
Women's individual	50:28.0	5 (2+2+0+1)	80
Sari Furuya Rina Mitsuhashi Fuyuko Tachizaki Yurie Tanaka	Women's team relay	1:15:47.7	11 (2+9)	17

Cross-country skiing

See main article: article, Cross-country skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Cross-country skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification.

Athlete	Event	Classical		Freestyle		Total
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Deficit	Rank
align=left rowspan=3	Keishin Yoshida	Men's 15 km freestyle	34:59.1	+1:15.2	13
Men's 30 km skiathlon	41:11.9	23	36:37.5	27	1:18:23.0	+2:03.0	25
Men's 50 km classical	2:17:21.9	+8:59.8	23
align=left rowspan=3	Masako Ishida	Women's 10 km freestyle	27:03.5	+2:03.0	18
Women's 15 km skiathlon	21:39.2	15	19:54.4	17	42:04.1	+1:19.2	14
Women's 30 km classical	1:26:38.4	+4:20.8	10

Curling

See main article: Curling at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Curling at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification. Japan has qualified their men's and women's team (five athletes per gender), by finishing in the top seven teams in Olympic Qualification points.^[4]

Summary

Team	Event	Group Stage										Tiebreaker	Semifinal	Final /
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Yusuke Morozumi Tetsuro Shimizu Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi Kosuke Morozumi Kohsuke Hirata	Men's tournament	NOR W 6–4	GBR L 5–6	SUI L 5–6	ITA W 6–5	USA W 8–2	SWE L 4–11	CAN L 4–8	DEN W 6–4	KOR L 4–10	8	Did not advance
Satsuki Fujisawa Chinami Yoshida Yumi Suzuki Yurika Yoshida Mari Motohashi	Women's tournament	USA W 10-5	DEN W 8–5	KOR W 7–5	CHN L 6–7	OAR W 10–5	CAN L 3–8	SWE W 5–4	GBR L 6–8	SUI L 4–8	4 Q		KOR L 7–8	GBR W 5–3

Men's tournament

See main article: Curling at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Men's tournament.

Round-robinJapan has a bye in draws 1, 4 and 9.

Draw 2Wednesday, 14 February, 20:05

Draw 3Thursday, 15 February, 14:05

Draw 5Friday, 16 February, 20:05

Draw 6Saturday, 17 February, 14:05

Draw 7Sunday, 18 February, 09:05

Draw 8Sunday, 18 February, 20:05

Draw 10Tuesday, 20 February, 09:05

Draw 11Tuesday, 20 February, 20:05

Draw 12Wednesday, 21 February, 14:05

Women's tournament

See main article: Curling at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Women's tournament.

Round-robinJapan has a bye in draws 4, 7 and 11.

Draw 1Wednesday, 14 February, 14:05

Draw 2Thursday, 15 February, 09:05

Draw 3Thursday, 15 February, 20:05

Draw 5Saturday, 17 February, 09:05

Draw 6Saturday, 17 February, 20:05

Draw 8Monday, 19 February, 09:05

Draw 9Monday, 19 February, 20:05

Draw 10Tuesday, 20 February, 14:05

Draw 12Wednesday, 21 February, 20:05

SemifinalFriday, 23 February, 20:05

Bronze Medal GameSaturday, 24 February, 20:05

Figure skating

See main article: Figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification.

Athlete	Event	/		/		Total
		Points	Rank	Points	Rank	Points	Rank
Yuzuru Hanyu	align=left rowspan=3	Men's singles	111.68	1 Q	206.17	2	317.85
Keiji Tanaka	80.05	20 Q	164.78	15	244.83	18
Shoma Uno	104.17	3 Q	202.73	3	306.90
Satoko Miyahara	Ladies' singles	75.94	4 Q	146.44	4	222.38	4
Kaori Sakamoto	73.18	5 Q	136.53	6	209.71	6
Miu Suzaki / Ryuichi Kihara	Pairs	57.74	21	Did not advance
Kana Muramoto / Chris Reed	Ice dancing	63.41	15 Q	97.22	13	160.63	15

Team event

Freestyle skiing

See main article: article, Freestyle skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Freestyle skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification.

Aerials

Halfpipe

Athlete	Event	Qualification				Final
		Run 1	Run 2	Best	Rank	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Best	Rank
Ayana Onozuka	Women's halfpipe	74.60	84.80	84.80	5 Q	50.80	77.20	82.20	82.20	5
Saori Suzuki		69.20	71.80	71.80	14	Did not advance
Yurie Watabe		21.20	56.60	56.60	22	Did not advance

Moguls

Athlete	Event	Qualification								Final
		Run 1				Run 2				Run 1				Run 2				Run 3
		Time	Points	Total	Rank	Time	Points	Total	Rank	Time	Points	Total	Rank	Time	Points	Total	Rank	Time	Points	Total	Rank
Sho Endo	Men's moguls	24.92	60.59	75.73	13	25.19	60.60	75.38	7 Q	24.42	66.92	82.72	1 Q					Did not advance
Daichi Hara		25.06	65.06	80.01	6 QF	24.75	65.93	81.29	3 Q	24.41	66.49	82.30	1 Q	24.90	67.03	82.19
Ikuma Horishima		23.95	63.93	80.35	5 QF	24.09	63.41	79.64	7 Q					Did not advance
Nobuyuki Nishi		24.74	59.79	75.17	16	25.35	60.58	75.15	9 Q	25.14	31.19	46.04	19	Did not advance
Arisa Murata	Women's moguls	29.90	59.83	74.13	9 QF	30.51	67.15	70.77	18	Did not advance

Ski cross

Qualification legend: FA – Qualify to medal round; FB – Qualify to consolation round

Slopestyle

Ice hockey

See main article: Ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Summary

Women's tournament

See main article: Ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Women's tournament and Ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Women's qualification. Japan women's national ice hockey team qualified by winning the final qualification tournament in Tomakomai, Japan.

Team roster

• Women's team event – 1 team of 23 players

Preliminary round

--------

5–8th place semifinal

Fifth place game

Nordic combined

See main article: article, Nordic combined at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Nordic combined at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification.

Athlete	Event	Ski jumping			Cross-country		Total
		Distance	Points	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
align=left rowspan=2	Hideaki Nagai	Normal hill/10 km	101.0	104.2	14	24:44.5	16	26:30.5	14
Large hill/10 km	134.0	121.0	13	24:08.2	22	25:20.2	12
align=left rowspan=2	Akito Watabe	Normal hill/10 km	105.5	123.7	3	24:28.2	2	24:56.2
Large hill/10 km	134.0	138.9	1	24:05.0	20	24:05.0	5
align=left rowspan=2	Yoshito Watabe	Normal hill/10 km	104.0	114.3	8	25:11.2	29	26:16.2	12
Large hill/10 km	121.0	110.6	20	24:14.9	26	26:07.9	20
align=left rowspan=2	Go Yamamoto	Normal hill/10 km	97.5	104.0	15	26:11.1	42	27:57.1	33
Large hill/10 km	127.5	124.5	8	24:34.2	32	25:32.2	16
Hideaki Nagai Akito Watabe Yoshito Watabe Takehiro Watanabe Go Yamamoto	Team large hill/4×5 km	525.0	455.3	3	47:59.6	7	48:18.6	4

Short track speed skating

See main article: Short track speed skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification. According to the ISU Special Olympic Qualification Rankings, Japan has qualified 5 men and 5 women.^[5]

On 13 February 2018, Japanese short-track speedskater Kei Saito, a reserve on the 5,000-meter relay team, has tested positive for a banned diuretic acetazolamide, and has been suspended from Winter Olympics for doping.^[6]

Men

Athlete	Event	Heat		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
align=left rowspan=2	Ryosuke Sakazume	500 m	40.658	2 Q	40.563	2 Q	40.434	4 FB	40.985	8
1000 m		3 ADV	1:24.099	2 Q	1:24.317	3 FB	1:27.522	5
align=left rowspan=3	Keita Watanabe	500 m	41.678	2 Q	41.354	4	Did not advance
1000 m	1:24.078	3	Did not advance
1500 m	2:19.205	4	Did not advance
Hiroki Yokoyama	1500 m	2:13.323	4	Did not advance
align=left rowspan=2	Kazuki Yoshinaga	1000 m	1:24.030	2 Q	1:24.649	4	Did not advance
1500 m			Did not advance
Ryosuke Sakazume Keita Watanabe Hiroki Yokoyama Kazuki Yoshinaga	5000 m relay	6:42.655	4 FB	7:02.554	7

Women

Athlete	Event	Heat		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Shione Kaminaga	1500 m	2:28.719	6	Did not advance
align=left rowspan=3	Sumire Kikuchi	500 m	44.838	4	Did not advance
1000 m	1:30.970	3	Did not advance
1500 m	2:29.665	3 Q	2:34.526	3 FB	2:54.450	11
Yuki Kikuchi	1500 m			Did not advance
Hitomi Saito	1000 m	1:32.457	2 Q	1:30.804	4	Did not advance
Ayuko Ito Shione Kaminaga Sumire Kikuchi Yuki Kikuchi Hitomi Saito	3000 m relay	4:12.664	4 FB	4:13.072	6

Qualification legend: ADV – Advanced due to being impeded by another skater; FA – Qualify to medal round; FB – Qualify to consolation round; OR – Olympic record

Skeleton

See main article: article, Skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification. Based on the world rankings, Japan qualified 3 sleds.^{[7] [8]}

Athlete	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Katsuyuki Miyajima	align=left rowspan=2	Men's	51.63	20	52.15	27	51.80	24	Eliminated		2:35.58	26
Hiroatsu Takahashi	52.00	27	51.50	21	51.19	16	Eliminated		2:34.69	22
Takako Oguchi	Women's	53.82	19	53.41	18	53.62	19	53.11	18	3:33.96	19

Ski jumping

See main article: article, Ski jumping at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Ski jumping at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification.

Men

Athlete	Event	Qualification			First round			Final			Total
		Distance	Points	Rank	Distance	Points	Rank	Distance	Points	Rank	Points	Rank
Daiki Ito	Normal hill	93.5	106.0	31 Q	103.0	110.3	19 Q	102.0	104.4	20	214.7	20
align=left rowspan=2	Noriaki Kasai	Normal hill	98.0	117.7	20 Q	104.5	113.9	16 Q	99.0	99.4	26	213.3	21
Large hill	122.5	104.2	22 Q	121.0	107.9	33	Did not advance
align=left rowspan=2	Junshirō Kobayashi	Normal hill	101.0	118.4	18 Q	93.0	98.0	31	Did not advance
Large hill	115.0	89.5	37 Q	122.0	114.8	26	122.0	110.0	24	224.8	24
align=left rowspan=2	Ryoyu Kobayashi	Normal hill	98.0	115.3	21 Q	108.0	120.2	9 Q	108.0	120.6	7	240.8	7
Large hill	143.5	127.6	3 Q	135.5	134.0	7 Q	128.0	124.0	15	258.0	12
Taku Takeuchi	Large hill	120.5	98.5	27 Q	124.0	114.1	27 Q	125.5	120.1	19	234.2	22
Daiki Ito Noriaki Kasai Ryoyu Kobayashi Taku Takeuchi	Team large hill	506.5	475.5	6 Q	501.0	465.0	6	940.5	6

Women

Athlete	Event	First round			Final			Total
		Distance	Points	Rank	Distance	Points	Rank	Points	Rank
Yuki Ito	align=left rowspan=4	Normal hill	94.0	105.1	9	93.0	98.8	10	203.9	9
Kaori Iwabuchi	93.5	98.2	11	89.0	90.1	13	188.3	12
Yuka Seto	93.0	90.3	15	89.0	81.7	24	172.0	17
Sara Takanashi	103.5	120.3	3	103.5	123.5	3	243.8

Snowboarding

See main article: article, Snowboarding at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Snowboarding at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification.

Freestyle

Men

Athlete	Event	Qualification				Final
		Run 1	Run 2	Best	Rank	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Best	Rank
align=left rowspan=2	Hiroaki Kunitake	Big air	37.25	36.75	37.25	17	Did not advance
Slopestyle	39.45	43.16	43.16	14	Did not advance
align=left rowspan=2	Yuri Okubo	Big air	84.25	44.25	84.25	9	Did not advance
Slopestyle	24.45	75.05	75.05	8	Did not advance
Ayumu Hirano	align=left rowspan=4	Halfpipe	87.50	95.25	95.25	3 Q	35.25	95.25	43.25	95.25
Taku Hiraoka	26.00	75.75	75.75	13	Did not advance
Raibu Katayama	85.50	90.75	90.75	5 Q	85.75	25.00	87.00	87.00	7
Yuto Totsuka	80.00	65.25	80.00	10 Q	39.25	7.00		39.25	11

Women

Athlete	Event	Qualification				Final
		Run 1	Run 2	Best	Rank	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Best	Rank
align=left rowspan=2	Yuka Fujimori	Big air	82.00	94.25	94.25	2 Q	82.25	40.50		122.75	7
Slopestyle	Canceled				63.73	48.51		63.73	9
align=left rowspan=2	Asami Hirono	Big air	27.50	37.75	37.75	24	Did not advance
Slopestyle	Canceled				49.80	27.26		49.80	12
align=left rowspan=2	Reira Iwabuchi	Big air	80.00	92.75	92.75	3 Q	79.75	67.75		147.50	4
Slopestyle	Canceled				48.33	31.06		48.33	14
align=left rowspan=2	Miyabi Onitsuka	Big air	81.75	86.50	86.50	7 Q	78.75		40.25	119.00	8
Slopestyle	Canceled				33.25	39.55		39.55	19
Kurumi Imai	align=left rowspan=4	Halfpipe	54.75	50.00	54.75	15	Did not advance
Haruna Matsumoto	80.75	84.25	84.25	3 Q	70.00	46.25	65.75	70.00	6
Hikaru Oe	10.00	51.00	51.00	17	Did not advance
Sena Tomita	59.50	66.75	66.75	7 Q	65.25	34.50	60.50	65.25	8

Parallel

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final
		Time	Rank	Opposition Time	Opposition Time	Opposition Time	Opposition Time	Rank
Masaki Shiba	Men's giant slalom	1:26.91	27	Did not advance
Tomoka Takeuchi	Women's giant slalom	1:32.86	6 Q	W –0.17	L +0.62	Did not advance

Speed skating

See main article: Speed skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification.

Men

Athlete	Event	Race
		Time	Rank
align=left rowspan=2	Tsubasa Hasegawa	500 m	35.08	14
1000 m	1:09.83	20
Seitaro Ichinohe	5000 m	6:16.55	9
Joji Kato	500 m	34.831	6
Shota Nakamura	1500 m	1:47.38	24
align=left rowspan=2	Takuro Oda	1000 m	1:08.568	5
1500 m	1:45.44	5
align=left rowspan=2	Ryousuke Tsuchiya	5000 m	6:22.45	16
10000 m	13:10.31	10
Shane Williamson	1500 m	1:46.21	10
align=left rowspan=2	Daichi Yamanaka	500 m	34.78	5
1000 m	1:10.027	24

Women

Athlete	Event	Race
		Time	Rank
align=left rowspan=2	Arisa Go	500 m	37.67	8
1000 m	1:15.84	13
Erina Kamiya	500 m	38.255	13
align=left rowspan=2	Ayaka Kikuchi	1500 m	1:58.92	16
3000 m	4:13.25	19
align=left rowspan=3	Nao Kodaira	500 m	36.94
1000 m	1:13:82
1500 m	1:56.11	6
Misaki Oshigiri	5000 m	7:07.71	9
Ayano Sato	3000 m	4:04.35	8
align=left rowspan=3	Miho Takagi	1000 m	1:13:98
1500 m	1:54.55
3000 m	4:01.35	5
Nana Takagi	5000 m	7:17.45	12

Mass start

Athlete	Event	Semifinal			Final
		Points	Time	Rank	Points	Time	Rank
Ryousuke Tsuchiya	align=left rowspan=2	Men's mass start	0	7:55.77	11	Did not advance
Shane Williamson	20	8:25.44	3 Q	0	7:46.19	11
Ayano Sato	align=left rowspan=2	Women's mass start	0	4:49.19	12	Did not advance
Nana Takagi	5	8:55.14	5 Q	60	8:32.87

Team pursuit

Athlete	Event	Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Opposition Time	Rank	Opposition Time	Rank	Opposition Time	Rank
Seitaro Ichinohe Shota Nakamura Ryosuke Tsuchiya Shane Williamson	Men's team pursuit	W 3:41.62	5 FC	Did not advance		Final C W 3:41.62	5
Miho Takagi Ayaka Kikuchi Ayano Sato Nana Takagi	Women's team pursuit	W 2:56.09	2 Q	W 2:58.94	1 FA	W 2:53.89

See also

• Japan at the 2017 Asian Winter Games

Notes and References

1. Web site: Opening Ceremony Flagbearers - Olympic Winter Games, PyeongChang 2018 . . 9 February 2018 . olympic.org . International Olympic Committee (IOC) . 10 February 2018.
2. Web site: Skispringer Kasai in olympicshe recordboeken. NU.nl. 2018-02-09. 2018-02-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20180227220748/https://nos.nl/pyeongchang2018/artikel/2216009-skispringer-kasai-in-olympische-recordboeken.html. dead.
3. Web site: Women's Nation Cup Score . 5 March 2017. www.docs.google.com/ . International Biathlon Union (IBU). 28 July 2017.
4. News: Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. 21 March 2017. worldcurling.org. 11 July 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180711120858/http://www.worldcurling.org/pyeongchang-2018-olympic-winter-games. dead.
5. Web site: XXI II Olympic Winter Games 2018 PyeongChang: Qualified quota places Short Track Speed Skating. International Skating Union (ISU). 23 November 2017. 24 November 2017.
6. Web site: Japanese speed skater Kei Saito suspended from Winter Olympics for doping.
7. Web site: Quota Allocation PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games 2018 - Men's Skeleton - IBSF 14 January 2018. 15 January 2018. www.ibsf.org. International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF). 15 January 2018. 16 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180116052604/http://www.ibsf.org/images/documents/downloads/Quotas/2017_18/Quota_allocation_IBSF_RANKING_Men_Skeleton_14_01_2018.pdf. dead.
8. Web site: Quota Allocation PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games 2018 - Women's Skeleton - IBSF 14 January 2018. 15 January 2018. www.ibsf.org. International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF). 15 January 2018. 16 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180116124919/http://www.ibsf.org/images/documents/downloads/Quotas/2017_18/Quota_allocation_IBSF_RANKING_Women_Skeleton_14_01_2018.pdf. dead.