Japan Gets Italian

Olympic qualification tournaments are happening right now, and Japan has officially earned their ticket to Milano-Cortina after winning the IIHF Group G Women's Ice Hockey Final Olympic Qualification Tournament. Japan's inclusion shouldn't surprise anyone as they've been quietly proving they're among the best nations outside of the handful of women's hockey "superpowers". They won Group B in Beijing in 2022 before being bounced by Finland in the medal round quarterfinals. Make no mistake, though: those uniforms should have earned them an automatic berth because there are never enough stripes on players at the Olympic tournament!

The four-team pool in which Japan played featured France, China, and Poland. China skated in 2022 Olympic Games after hosting them, but both Poland and France have never appeared on the Olympic stage. Japan absolutely crushed their opponents in every game in this event, though, as they showed why they belong in Italy. They hammered France by a 7-1 score before dispatching Poland by a 6-0 score and China by a 4-1 score as they took care of business.

Akane Shiga was Japan's top scorer as she had two goals and four assists, and she currently plays with Luleå HF/MSSK in the SDHL after a season with PWHL Ottawa. She is the clear leader on the team, but Yumika Wajima showed her sniping abilities with five goals to lead the tournament. Suzuka Maeda won 36 of 48 face-offs in the event, and Miyuu Masuhara finished the tournament with a 0.50 GAA and a .966 save percentage. In short, Japan was at the top of stats boards.

If that last name sounds familiar, Masuhara was one of Japan's goaltender at the World Championships, and she was the starting netminder in the silver-medal run at the 2023 FISU games. The 23 year-old stops pucks for the Douro Kensetsu Peregrine in Japan's Women's Ice Hockey League where they finished as the runner-ups last season to the Seibu Princess Rabbits. I would imagine that we'll be hearing a lot about Masuhara in Japan's games at the Olympics, but she's already having an impact for her nation.

Back to the team's play, the new additions to the squad seemed to help.

"We talked about the importance of increasing our offensive output before the tournament," head coach Yuji Iizuka said to IIHF's James Armstrong. "A lot of players who weren't with us at the previous Olympics contributed goals this time and that's a very positive development for us."

Regardless of roster, the Japanese team looked outstanding both in their play and in their uniform. The stripes on the socks are vey unique to hockey, especially on the international scene, but it's something the sport needs. Anytime the cookie-cutter designs can be thrown aside, I'm all for it. If you see the team below and don't say "they look pretty good", I'm not sure what you want in aesthetics.

Even the black uniform, seen to the right, gets a big push from the sock striping, and I am completely against black uniforms when it comes to national teams. I know Japan uses black in their hockey colour scheme, but using the red to break up the monotone black uniforms really helps. I'd love to see a red-white-red hem stripe on the jersey, but Nike has yet to call me about my thoughts on jersey design. In any case, the sock stripes put the Japan National Team way ahead of the competition, so I'm glad they earned their qualification. Seeing those socks in Italy will be awesome!

It will still be an uphill battle for the Japanese women at the Olympics as they'll have to escape a group that features host Italy. More spots will be determined tomorrow with one spot that will be filled by an IIHF-named nation. That IIHF spot was being held for Russia based on IIHF rankings, but with the IIHF ruling that Russia cannot participate, it opens a spot for possibly France or Hungary who finished in second-place in the qualifying tournaments.

The Japanese women will be heading to Milano-Cortina in February next year. They'll look good on the ice while playing the games, and they'll be pushing for better than a sixth-place finish at the 2026 Olympic Games. Congratulations, Japan!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!