#sumitada moriguchi

Japanese Figure Skating Team for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics

Women: Ami Nakai, Kaori Sakamoto, Mone Chiba

Men: Shun Sato, Yuma Kagiyama, Kao Miura

Pairs: Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara, Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi

Yuna Nagaoka & Sumitada Moriguchi (JPN) - Earn Japan's 2nd pairs spot for #MilanoCortina2026

I've yapped enough about the Japanese men and women, but what about the partnered disciplines?

PAIRS

YunaSumi (Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi) - not much to say in regards to pairs since YunaSumi are the only international pairs team from Japan after RikuRyu's retirement. Yuna and Sumi are so young and already so competitive internationally! Very bright future ahead for them and they're keeping RikuRyu's torch aflame. I think the Olympic nerves got to them, Yuna especially, but Worlds proved to me that they are hungry to redeem themselves. I can see them making it to grand prix final next season and winning 4CC!!

THE REST OF THE JAPANESE PAIRS FIELD:

Japanese pairs is pretty barren, which is kinda surprising since their singles field is so deep and pairs is much more similar to singles than ice dance. (Though, I have noticed that a lot of baby J-pairs often try to balance singles and pairs too)

There's Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda (who's brazilian fun fact!) who was relatively successful with Sae Shimizu in juniors (JGPF and 11th at Worlds!) but Sae quit pairs. Lucas teamed up with Ayumi Kagotani last season and got silver (important context: only YunaSumi and Kagotani/Honda competed in pairs and Kagotani/Honda were 81.83 points behind) but they only competed at nationals that season so I don't have much of an opinion about them.

While Kagotani/Honda are training mates with YunaSumi at Kinoshita Academy (Mie Hamada's school), YunaSumi also have three other coaches that are much more experienced in pairs and I think Kagotani/Honda would benefit from training with pair-specific coaches.

ICE DANCE

Utamasa (Utana Yoshida/Morita Masaya) - Utamasa are still going to dominate in my opinion. Utamasa have been ice dancers since 2016 and together since 2023. Considering patterns are being revived, this will give them a major advantage over the other teams who are all relatively new to ice dance. (Just compare Utamasa's DOI golden waltz to IkuKo's).

That being said, I feel like Utamasa still doesn't have full JSF support? They only beat IkuKo by 7 points at nationals and were put in the lowest funding group (B) despite being Japan's only international ice dance team (If I were JSF, I would have put them in A).

I'm really interested in seeing Utamasa progress this next season! Ice dance is very difficult to break into due to scoring being mostly reputation based and since neither Cathy Reed or Japan is known for producing powerhouses, I think what they've managed to accomplish this far is impressive and hope they stick with another. I think they have the ability to get into that mid tier international groups such as the Mrazeks, Taschlers, and Diana/Gleb this quad.

IkuKo (Ikura Kushida/Koshiro Shimada) - Ikura Kushida is fucking star. She is a magnetic performer with gorgeous and standout musicality. Her skating is so mature I couldn't believe she was the same age as me. IkuKo's DOI program looked so expensive and I loved it. Unfortunately, there's still a long way to go with them (their golden waltz at DOI looked rough in my non-expert opinion) BUT luckily for them, JSF seem very invested in them. IkuKo have only been together for one season, but they were silver J-Nats (only 7 points less that Utamasa) and invited to DOI despite only having done 2 major competitions together (J-Nats & Golden Spin). I think Cathy will put them to work and they'll be able to catch up Utamasa in a couple of seasons, but for the upcoming season, they're definitely getting one of those NHK host spots and I can see them going to 4CC and becoming Japan's number 2 ice dance team!

ShoMarin (Marin Honda/Shoma Uno) - ShoMarin!! I'm pretty excited for this team considering they look pretty decent in their shows and training videos. Shoma's height is definitely a disadvantage and I think they're the first ice dance team I've ever seen where the woman is taller than the man (shoma's 158/5'2" and marin's 163/5'4"), but I think people are freaking out about this too much. Imo, it'll force them to become more creative with their lifts (which i think is a good thing!) and besides, there are plenty of women who have lifted men. If Marina Anissina can lift Gwendal Peizerat, I'm sure Shoma will be fine.

I'll be honest, I was never a Shoma or Marin fan during their singles careers. Marin's career was too short for me to become very invested, and for Shoma, there were just a lot of other men I liked more (namely yuzu, javi, boyang, nathan, vincent, jason, and junhwan). That being said, I always found both of them to be great performers and that's what ice dance is all about!

I can see ShoMarin having a little rivalry with IkuKo and hearing their ice dance backstory makes me think that they've been training for longer than we think. I get the feeling that Marin in particular has a lot of respect for ice dance as a separate discipline (fun fact! she had a tryout with Shingo Nishiyama).

RikaShin (Rika Kihira/Shingo Nishiyama) - As someone who really loved Rika Kihira as singles skater, RikaShin is the least exciting team to me. In fact, I kind of dread it a bit. In the most respectful way possible, I think people remember Rika as more of an artistic skater than she was due to her having immaculate programs that hid her weaknesses and showcased her strengths. I think pairs would have a much more natural fit for her.

I feel like ice dance has a reputation in Japan of being where singles skaters go to when their singles career is over but they aren't ready to retire, which is why their ice dance program is lacking. If you look at the top ice dance nations (US, Canada, Russia, France etc.), ice dancers start YOUNG because it is so different from the singles and pairs fields. You can have beautiful skating skills for singles skater and be considered a mediocre ice dancer.

I think Shingo is a pretty decent ice dancer, but considering Rika has never let herself fully heal from her injuries and is insisting on training singles still... we'll see what happens.

THE REST OF THE JAPANESE ICE DANCE FIELD...

is pretty barren! Not as bad as their pairs field since Ayano Sasaki/Yoshimitsu Ikeda and Chisato Uramatsu/Atsuhiko Tamura also competed in nationals but I'll be honest, ice dance is probably the discipline I understand the least 🙈. I think JSF is burned by not winning the Milano Team event and is starting to invest more in ice dance but it's going to be a long journey for the field to get deep and internationally competitive.

For next season, I think only Utamasa will be Worlds ready but I can see Utamasa and IkuKo going to 4CC as well! I think RikaShin and ShoMarin will be domestic only next season but maybe JSF will put ShoMarin in at NHK considering their immense popularity?? (however i also feel like it would be out of character of JSF to just give a completely new team that has never competed a host spot) Their appearance would certainly drive up ticket sales!