# 2008–09 Japan Figure Skating Championships

The 2008–09 Japan Figure Skating Championships were the 77th edition of the event. It took place between December 25 and 27, 2008 at the Big Hat arena in Nagano. Skaters competed in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing on the senior level for the title of national champion of Japan. In addition, the event will also be used to choose the Japanese teams to the 2009 World Championships and the 2009 Four Continents Championships. The Japanese team to the 2009 World Junior Championships was chosen at the Japanese Junior Championships.

## Competition notes

* The following skaters placed high enough at Junior Nationals and so were invited to compete at Senior Nationals: Yuzuru Hanyu (1st in junior), Tatsuki Machida (2nd in junior), Daisuke Murakami (3rd in junior) and Kento Nakamura (4th in junior) for the men; Haruka Imai (1st in junior), Mari Suzuki (2nd in junior), Kanako Murakami (3rd in junior), and Ayane Nakamura (4th in junior) for the ladies; and Nana Sugiki / Taiyo Mizutani (1st in junior) in ice dancing.

## Results
### Men

| Rank | Name | Club | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Nobunari Oda | Kansai Univ Skating Club | 243.70 | 1 | 86.45 | 1 | 157.25 |
| 2 | Takahiko Kozuka | Toyota Motor | 225.94 | 2 | 77.40 | 2 | 148.54 |
| 3 | Takahito Mura | Kurashiki suisho High School | 200.48 | 3 | 75.50 | 4 | 124.98 |
| 4 | Yasuharu Nanri | Fukuya Co. | 197.69 | 6 | 69.15 | 3 | 128.54 |
| 5 | Daisuke Murakami | Aomoriyamada Highschool | 187.50 | 4 | 71.30 | 7 | 116.20 |
| 6 | Kensuke Nakaniwa | Papio Figure Club | 184.18 | 7 | 67.80 | 6 | 116.38 |
| 7 | Tatsuki Machida | Kansai Univ Skating Club | 183.73 | 5 | 70.33 | 8 | 113.40 |
| 8 | Yuzuru Hanyu | Miyagi FSC | 181.65 | 8 | 64.50 | 5 | 117.15 |
| 9 | Takemochi Ogami | Kurashiki FSC | 176.74 | 9 | 63.45 | 9 | 113.29 |
| 10 | Hirokazu Kobayashi | Shinyokohama Prince Club | 168.68 | 10 | 60.70 | 10 | 107.98 |
| 11 | Kento Nakamura | Meijijingu Gaien FSC | 159.84 | 11 | 59.35 | 11 | 100.49 |
| 12 | Tomoyuki Koriyama | Fukuoka Univ | 149.68 | 15 | 50.45 | 12 | 99.23 |
| 13 | Hayato Odajima | Hokkaido.Forest.F.S.C | 147.55 | 12 | 55.43 | 15 | 92.12 |
| 14 | Hirofumi Torii | Meiji Univ | 146.17 | 17 | 48.96 | 14 | 97.21 |
| 15 | Naoto Saito | Tohoku Fukushi University | 143.65 | 18 | 45.60 | 13 | 98.05 |
| 16 | Ryo Shibata | Meiji Univ | 141.38 | 13 | 53.80 | 17 | 87.58 |
| 17 | Junki Sano | Chukyo Univ | 140.66 | 14 | 50.56 | 16 | 90.10 |
| 18 | Takumi Suenaga | Tohoku Fukushi University | 125.16 | 16 | 49.86 | 20 | 75.30 |
| 19 | Junzo Nishigami | Kansai Univ Skating Club | 123.34 | 19 | 44.96 | 19 | 78.38 |
| 20 | Hayato Miyazaki | Kansai Univ Skating Club | 119.94 | 21 | 39.43 | 18 | 80.51 |
| 21 | Tatsuya Takei | St.Catherine ISC | 112.63 | 20 | 43.09 | 22 | 69.54 |
| 22 | Takeru Tiba | Morioka FSC | 107.32 | 24 | 35.65 | 21 | 71.67 |
| 23 | Tatsuya Ishii | Osakauniv Of Economicsisc | 106.71 | 23 | 37.21 | 23 | 69.50 |
| 24 | Masato Endo | Toyo Univ | 102.66 | 22 | 38.12 | 24 | 64.54 |
| Did not advance to free skating ||||||||
| 25 | Hisashi Tahara | Toyo Univ | | 25 | 32.32 | | |
| 26 | Taketo Omae | Ritsumei Univ. | | 26 | 31.32 | | |
| WD | Kunihito Yuasa | Aichi mizuho Univ | | | | | |

### Ladies

| Rank | Name | Club | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Mao Asada | Chukyo Senior High School | 182.45 | 2 | 65.30 | 2 | 117.15 |
| 2 | Fumie Suguri | Avex | 178.59 | 5 | 57.32 | 1 | 121.27 |
| 3 | Miki Ando | Toyota Motor | 174.09 | 3 | 65.02 | 4 | 109.07 |
| 4 | Akiko Suzuki | Howa sports landSkateclub | 173.98 | 6 | 57.02 | 3 | 116.96 |
| 5 | Yukari Nakano | Prince Hotel | 172.60 | 1 | 67.26 | 6 | 105.34 |
| 6 | Nana Takeda | Waseda Univ | 164.73 | 4 | 57.82 | 5 | 106.91 |
| 7 | Kanako Murakami | Grand Prix Tokai Club | 147.83 | 7 | 55.74 | 8 | 92.09 |
| 8 | Satsuki Muramoto | Kobe PFSC | 146.27 | 8 | 53.08 | 7 | 93.19 |
| 9 | Ayane Nakamura | Meito Figure Skating Club | 138.07 | 13 | 46.64 | 9 | 91.43 |
| 10 | Ayumi Miyamoto | Chukyo Univ | 132.79 | 9 | 48.72 | 10 | 84.07 |
| 11 | Aki Sawada | Kansai Univ Skating Club | 128.95 | 11 | 48.36 | 12 | 80.59 |
| 12 | Mari Suzuki | Tohoku Univ | 126.40 | 12 | 47.58 | 13 | 78.82 |
| 13 | Ayako Hagiwara | Meiji Univ | 124.54 | 17 | 42.82 | 11 | 81.72 |
| 14 | Haruka Imai | Musashino FSC | 121.39 | 16 | 43.86 | 14 | 77.53 |
| 15 | Mai Asada | Chukyo Univ | 120.77 | 15 | 44.50 | 16 | 76.27 |
| 16 | Ayumi Goto | AMC Mizuho High School | 118.68 | 14 | 45.86 | 17 | 72.82 |
| 17 | Sayaka Yodo | Kwansei Gakuin Univ | 118.25 | 10 | 48.56 | 21 | 69.69 |
| 18 | Haruka Inoue | Kyoto Nishi High. | 115.56 | 20 | 38.28 | 15 | 77.28 |
| 19 | Risa Mochizuki | Meiji Univ. | 112.51 | 18 | 40.04 | 18 | 72.47 |
| 20 | Asani Nagumo | Shinyokohama price Club | 109.09 | 19 | 39.82 | 22 | 69.27 |
| 21 | Hinako Kikuchi | Tohoku Gakuin Univ | 107.18 | 22 | 36.88 | 20 | 70.30 |
| 22 | Eri Seto | Kansai Univ Skating Club | 106.57 | 23 | 35.50 | 19 | 71.07 |
| 23 | Yuko Iwaki | Waseda Univ | 99.33 | 21 | 37.50 | 24 | 61.83 |
| 24 | Haruka Hasegawa | Toyo Univ | 98.10 | 24 | 33.50 | 23 | 64.60 |
| Did not advance to free skating ||||||||
| 25 | Kazuha Asami | Nihon Univ | | 25 | 32.66 | | |
| 26 | Misaki Ohara | Nihon Univ | | 26 | 32.44 | | |
| 27 | Akiko Kitamura | Kansai Univ | | 27 | 32.24 | | |
| 28 | Yuko Muraki | Nihon Univ | | 28 | 31.92 | | |
| 29 | Miyu Yamazaki | Katsuyama FC | | 29 | 29.48 | | |
| WD | Nagisa Hayashi | Waseda Univ | | | | | |

### Pairs

| Rank | Name | Club | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Narumi Takahashi / Mervin Tran | | 133.29 | 1 | 45.94 | 1 | 87.35 |

### Ice dancing

| Rank | Name | Club | Total points | CD | CD | OD | OD | FD | FD |
| 1 | Cathy Reed / Chris Reed | Kawagoe FSC | 156.35 | 1 | 31.91 | 1 | 47.47 | 1 | 76.97 |
| 2 | Nana Sugiki / Taiyo Mizutani | Shinyokohama prince club Hosei | 113.76 | 2 | 23.98 | 3 | 32.11 | 2 | 57.67 |
| 3 | Emi Hirai / Ayato Yuzawa | Kansai Univ Skating Club | 113.35 | 3 | 22.08 | 2 | 35.87 | 3 | 55.40 |

## Japan Junior Figure Skating Championships

The 2008–09 Japan Junior Figure Skating Championships were the Japanese National Championships for the Junior level for the 2008–09 season. They took place in Nagoya from November 23 through 24, 2008. The results of this competition were used to choose the Japanese team to the 2009 World Junior Championships.
The following skaters placed high enough at Novice Nationals and so were invited to compete at Junior Nationals: Sei Kawahara (1st in novice, 11th in junior) and Hiroaki Sato (2nd in novice, 27th in junior) for the men; and Miu Sato (1st in novice, 25th in junior), Mao Watanabe (2nd in novice, 30th in junior), Karen Kemanai (3rd in novice, 7th in junior), and Risa Shoji (4th in novice, 29th in junior) for the ladies.

### Men

| Rank | Name | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Yuzuru Hanyu | 182.17 | 4 | 57.25 | 1 | 124.92 |
| 2 | Tatsuki Machida | 180.91 | 1 | 69.85 | 3 | 111.06 |
| 3 | Daisuke Murakami | 173.45 | 2 | 65.95 | 4 | 107.50 |
| 4 | Kento Nakamura | 166.49 | 5 | 53.98 | 2 | 112.51 |
| 5 | Akio Sasaki | 148.21 | 3 | 60.63 | 12 | 87.58 |
| 6 | Keiji Tanaka | 142.32 | 11 | 45.18 | 5 | 97.14 |
| 7 | Yuki Horinouchi | 140.36 | 6 | 48.21 | 7 | 92.15 |
| 8 | Yukihiro Yoshida | 138.77 | 10 | 45.34 | 6 | 93.43 |
| 9 | Ryuichi Kihara | 136.96 | 7 | 47.20 | 9 | 89.76 |
| 10 | Takuya Kondo | 135.35 | 9 | 45.88 | 10 | 89.47 |
| 11 | Sei Kawahara | 134.20 | 12 | 44.92 | 11 | 89.28 |
| 12 | Daisuke Isozaki | 133.09 | 15 | 41.99 | 8 | 91.10 |
| 13 | Yoji Tsuboi | 132.69 | 8 | 46.77 | 13 | 85.92 |
| 14 | Koshin Yamada | 123.01 | 13 | 43.93 | 16 | 79.08 |
| 15 | Kaoru Tsuji | 121.69 | 18 | 41.16 | 15 | 80.53 |
| 16 | Fumiya ITAI | 120.47 | 23 | 39.40 | 14 | 81.07 |
| 17 | Jun Suzuki | 120.30 | 16 | 41.83 | 17 | 78.47 |
| 18 | Yuta Onuma | 117.65 | 19 | 41.00 | 18 | 76.65 |
| 19 | Takaya Hashizume | 114.71 | 17 | 41.54 | 20 | 73.17 |
| 20 | Satoshi Nakamura | 114.57 | 21 | 40.30 | 19 | 74.27 |
| 21 | Masataka Nakajima | 112.60 | 20 | 40.45 | 21 | 72.15 |
| 22 | Hiroki Honda | 106.69 | 14 | 42.09 | 23 | 64.60 |
| 23 | Hiroki Habu | 104.60 | 22 | 39.49 | 22 | 65.11 |
| 24 | Kohei Yoshino | 100.94 | 24 | 38.52 | 24 | 62.42 |
| Did not advance to free skating |||||||
| 25 | Kousuke Nozoe | | 25 | 37.19 | | |
| 26 | Ryoichi Eguchi | | 26 | 36.59 | | |
| 27 | Hiroaki Sato | | 27 | 36.20 | | |
| 28 | Kentaro Suzuki | | 28 | 31.85 | | |

### Ladies

| Rank | Name | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Haruka Imai | 144.15 | 2 | 53.05 | 4 | 91.10 |
| 2 | Mari Suzuki | 144.03 | 3 | 51.86 | 2 | 92.17 |
| 3 | Kanako Murakami | 143.49 | 7 | 48.94 | 1 | 94.55 |
| 4 | Ayane Nakamura | 142.44 | 1 | 56.65 | 8 | 85.79 |
| 5 | Yuki Nishino | 141.03 | 4 | 51.44 | 6 | 89.59 |
| 6 | Shoko Ishikawa | 135.52 | 9 | 46.74 | 7 | 88.78 |
| 7 | Karen Kemanai | 133.91 | 18 | 42.12 | 3 | 91.79 |
| 8 | Yukiko Fujisawa | 133.12 | 13 | 43.16 | 5 | 89.96 |
| 9 | RoannaSari Oshikawa | 131.93 | 10 | 46.49 | 9 | 85.44 |
| 10 | Ayaka Hosoda | 126.84 | 15 | 43.03 | 10 | 83.81 |
| 11 | Shion Kokubun | 124.06 | 8 | 47.08 | 14 | 76.98 |
| 12 | Kana Muramoto | 122.78 | 23 | 39.79 | 11 | 82.99 |
| 13 | Juri Ohkawa | 119.30 | 22 | 40.10 | 12 | 79.20 |
| 14 | Mika Nakamura | 119.04 | 20 | 42.00 | 13 | 77.04 |
| 15 | Saya Ueno | 117.54 | 17 | 42.30 | 15 | 75.24 |
| 16 | Mao Nagao | 116.22 | 12 | 43.53 | 17 | 72.69 |
| 17 | Miho Sasaki | 116.02 | 16 | 42.78 | 16 | 73.24 |
| 18 | Yuka Ishikawa | 114.73 | 11 | 44.04 | 18 | 70.69 |
| 19 | Mutsumi Takayama | 114.62 | 6 | 49.38 | 23 | 65.24 |
| 20 | Nanoha Sato | 113.58 | 5 | 49.65 | 24 | 63.93 |
| 21 | Kuriko Oikawa | 112.82 | 14 | 43.06 | 19 | 69.76 |
| 22 | Sayaka Matsubara | 110.55 | 21 | 41.49 | 20 | 69.06 |
| 23 | Rumi Suizu | 107.84 | 19 | 42.03 | 21 | 65.81 |
| 24 | Midori Suzuki | 104.92 | 24 | 39.24 | 22 | 65.68 |
| Did not advance to free skating |||||||
| 25 | Miu Sato | | 25 | 37.94 | | |
| 26 | Ayaka Ishii | | 26 | 37.32 | | |
| 27 | Naomi Tanigawa | | 27 | 36.19 | | |
| 28 | Kanade Hasegawa | | 28 | 35.46 | | |
| 29 | Risa Shoji | | 29 | 34.30 | | |
| 30 | Mao Watanabe | | 30 | 34.02 | | |

### Ice dancing

| Rank | Name | Total points | CD | CD | OD | OD | FD | FD |
| 1 | Nana Sugiki / Taiyo Mizutani | 121.07 | 1 | 26.13 | 1 | 37.07 | 1 | 57.87 |
| 2 | Kaede Hara / Kokoro Mizutani | 106.97 | 2 | 24.07 | 2 | 32.71 | 2 | 50.19 |

## International team selections

Following the Japanese Championships, the team to the 2009 World Championships, 2009 Four Continents Championships, 2009 Winter Universiade were announced as:

### World Championships

| | Men | Ladies | Ice dancing |
| 1 | Nobunari Oda | Mao Asada | Cathy Reed / Chris Reed |
| 2 | Takahiko Kozuka | Fumie Suguri | |
| 3 | Takahito Mura | Miki Ando | |
| 1st Alternate | Yasuharu Nanri | Yukari Nakano | |
| 2nd Alternate | Daisuke Murakami | Akiko Suzuki | |

### Four Continents Championships

| | Men | Ladies | Ice dancing |
| 1 | Nobunari Oda | Mao Asada | Cathy Reed / Chris Reed |
| 2 | Takahiko Kozuka | Fumie Suguri | |
| 3 | Yasuharu Nanri | Akiko Suzuki | |
| 1st Alternate | Takahito Mura | Yukari Nakano | |
| 2nd Alternate | Kensuke Nakaniwa | Miki Ando | |

### Winter Universiade

| | Men | Ladies | Ice dancing |
| 1 | Yasuharu Nanri | Yukari Nakano | Emi Hirai / Ayato Yuzawa |
| 2 | Tatsuki Machida | Nana Takeda | |
| 3 | Takemochi Ogami | Ayumi Miyamoto | |
| 1st Alternate | Hirokazu Kobayashi | Aki Sawada | |
| 2nd Alternate | Tomoyuki Koriyama | Ayako Hagiwara | |

### World Junior Championships

Following the Japanese Junior Championships, the team to the 2009 World Junior Championships was announced as:
| | Men | Ladies | Pairs |
| 1 | Yuzuru Hanyu | Haruka Imai | Narumi Takahashi / Mervin Tran |
| 2 | | Mari Suzuki | |