Yoshimura’s Redemption: Japanese champions eye Olympic qualification (2025)

13 March 2025

When the Fujisawa Satsuki rink claimed the silver medal at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, it looked like the beginning of a bright future for Japanese curling.

After securing bronze at Pyeongchang 2018, making the Olympic final in 2022 and then winning the Japan Curling Championships back to back consolidated them as the nation’s best team and one of the best in the world.

But the 2024 national competition provided a shock, as Team Fujisawa, undefeated in the first round-robin stage, failed to make the play-offs after the Championship round, providing Ueno Miyu and her hard-working squad a route to the gold medal that year.

Then in 2025, it was Yoshimura Sayaka’s chance to win her third national title, with Fujisawa finishing third.

Strength of women’s curling in Japan

Three different victors in three years showed the sheer competitiveness in Japanese women’s curling and that no one should expect a result to go their way. In the past four years, six different skips have made the final — the others being Kitazawa Ikue, Kanai Asuka and in the past two editions, Nihira Miku.

To win the gold medal means you have to be playing at a high level, and this is what Yoshimura showed throughout the 2025 competition.

Only one defeat came during the tournament — a 7-6 defeat in the Championship round-robin to Fujisawa — before they defeated Nihira in an extra-end by 8-7.

Olympic trials spot secured

Most importantly — per the country’s qualification rules — it ensured Team Yoshimura will participate in the Olympic trials later this year. As Ueno won the 2024 edition and Fujisawa is the highest-ranked team, they will also compete for that spot at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, if Japan qualifies.

“Winning the third Japanese title was a very important match that led me to the Olympics,” said Yoshimura.

“If we lost at the final, then we wouldn’t have a chance to go to the Olympics.

“We didn’t get a spot [beforehand] for the Olympic trials, so this was very important for our team, so we were very happy.”

That final saw Nihira score two in the final end to take it to a tiebreaker, which Yoshimura admits “we didn’t know what was going to happen until the end”.

“In the final, instead of focusing on our opponents, we were focusing on our performance.

“Our opponents were also a very good team, so we were throwing each other high shots, but we were also returning good shots in the game, and we didn’t know who was going to win.

“In that game, we believed in ourselves until the end, and we believed that we were going to win.

“We were able to connect to a really good point until the end, and we went all the way to the extra end; but in the end, we were able to finish the game.

“The moment it was decided, all the tension was gone.I felt very relieved.”

Past World Women’s Championship showings

It marked Yoshimura’s first title in four years, when they last defeated Fujisawa 7-6 with a dramatic score of two in the last end of the game. By virtue of being national champions, they represented Japan at the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2021, where they finished 11^thout of 14 teams, with five wins.

It was a learning experience for the now-33-year-old, who had been part of Ogasawara Ayumi’s rink to finish sixth in the world on home soil in Sapporo back in 2015.

Yoshimura admitted there was “a lot of stress” at the 2021 World Championship, which was held with COVID-19 restrictions in place, going as far as saying they were “lots of regrets” from the tournament.

And this year’s world championship must be one where Japan deliver if they hope to automaticallyqualify for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

With just the top eight National Olympic Committees – including Italy – booking their spot, based on their results of the 2024 and 2025 tournaments. They currently sit 11^thin the rankings and need to be close to the play-offs this year to stand a chance.

Failing that, Japan would have another opportunity to make the Games — with two countries progressing via theOlympic Qualification Event in late 2025— the last chance to achieve that Olympic dream.

Expectations from Uijeongbu

There is a degree of pressure on the team, but the confidence is apparent from Yoshimura, who seems more assured than she was four years ago and with the freedom to enjoy the competition outside of the ice rink,without the constraints of a bubble system.

“This time, I feel like I’ve become stronger,” she said.

“We are eager to learn and eager for a challenge.

“As a representative of Japan I want to win qualification to participate in the Olympics and not only to win the qualification, but I also want to win the medal.

“Every team is going to participate in the world championship before the Olympics, every team is going to do their best to participate in the world championship.

“This time, we have the opportunity to experience the world at the world championships — I want to show that we can fight.

“All the teams who are going to the world championship will be good teams, especially because it’s a year before the Olympics.

“We’re expecting that we will be having good, tough games as well and we also want to show the world we have good performances as well.”

Team dynamics “like family“

Part of that rise to the top is a strong bond between teammates. The skip, after describing every member of the team individually, comes to the conclusion that “we’re all funny” and act like a family off the ice too, seeing each other more often than their real families, as they travel on tour.

That familiarity has been a true difference-maker too — with Onodera Kaho and OhmiyaAnna teaming with the skip every year since they joined Ogasawara’s rink for the 2014-2015 season. Kotani Yuna joined the trio in 2022 and even skipped the team the following year when Yoshimura was on maternity leave. Even alternate Kobayashi Mina, who is just 22 years old, has been relied on since 2021.

Season results so far

A cohesive unit has produced results this season, including victories at the ADVICS Cup and the Karuizawa International. In the latter, they defeated Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg twice — the second time in the final — after thrashing Switzerland’s four-time world champion Silvana Tirinzoni, in the semi-finals.

Raising the standard at home has built the belief of Team Yoshimura heading to Korea. She attributes this quality back home to the number of teams on the World Curling Tour, who spend a lot of the season training in Canada in between tournaments.

Even this season, four Japanese teams have participated in the Grand Slam of Curling, when before, just one or two teams would be flying the nation’s flag at these events.

Theworld rankingsreflect this too. Three Japanese teams — Fujisawa, Tabata and Yoshimura — are in the top 10, more than any other country including Canada. Ueno, the country’s fifth-best team, is ranked 21stin the world.

“Japan is a rare case,” added Yoshimura, “It’s a country that has grown rapidly in the last few years.

“The fact that the top five teams have been able to compete for a long time is one of the reasons why they have become stronger.

“One thing I can say is that the top five teams in the Japanese women’s team are competing at a very high level.”

Now Yoshimura will focus on righting the wrongs of 2021, seeking a medal in 2025 and perhaps, that first world title that has eluded Japan since its beginnings in the sport. If they can successfully push their way into a top-eight spot, we can expect an exciting showdown between Fujisawa, Ueno and Yoshimura at the Olympic trials for the honour of representing their country on the biggest stage.

And to predict who will win that tournament, considering the competitiveness of the nation’s curling? Well, that would be a fool’s game.

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