Japan at the 2018 Winter Paralympics

Japan sent competitors to the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The group from Japan competed in para-alpine skiing, para-Nordic skiing, para-snowboarding and sledge hockey.

Japan at the 2018 Winter Paralympics
IPC code	JPN
NPC	Japan Paralympic Committee
Website	www.jsad.or.jp (in Japanese)
in Pyeongchang
Competitors	38 in 5 sports
Flag bearer	Momoka Muraoka (opening)
Medals Ranked 9th	Gold 3 Silver 4 Bronze 3 Total 10
Winter Paralympics appearances (overview)
1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022

Medalists

Further information: 2018 Winter Paralympics medal table and List of 2018 Winter Paralympics medal winners

The following Japanese competitors won medals at the games. In the discipline sections below, the medalists' names are bolded.

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	Momoka Muraoka	Alpine skiing	Women's giant slalom, sitting	14 March
Gold	Gurimu Narita	Snowboarding	Men's banked slalom, SB-LL2	16 March
Gold	Yoshihiro Nitta	Cross country skiing	Men's 10 kilometre classical, standing	17 March
Silver	Momoka Muraoka	Alpine skiing	Women's downhill, sitting	10 March
Silver	Taiki Morii	Alpine skiing	Men's downhill, sitting	10 March
Silver	Yoshihiro Nitta	Cross country skiing	Men's 1.5 km sprint classical, standing	14 March
Silver	Momoka Muraoka	Alpine skiing	Women's slalom, sitting	18 March
Bronze	Momoka Muraoka	Alpine skiing	Women's super-G, sitting	11 March
Bronze	Gurimu Narita	Snowboarding	Men's snowboard cross, SB-LL2	12 March
Bronze	Momoka Muraoka	Alpine skiing	Women's super combined, sitting	13 March

Team

There were three announcements with who would go to the 2018 Winter Games representing Japan. The second announcement was made on 8 February 2018. The last announcement was made on 18 February 2018.^[1][2][3] The last announcement said two male para-alpine skiers would be going to South Korea.^[4] The country has the third largest team among all nations. It has 38 people.^[5]

The table below contains the list of members of people (called "Team Japan") that will be participating in the 2018 Games.

Team Japan

Name	Sport	Classification	Events	ref
Gurimu Narita	para-snowboarding	SB-LL2		[6]
Keiichi Sato	para-Nordic skiing		biathlon, cross country skiing	[7]
Atsushi Yamamoto	para-snowboarding			[7]

Para-Nordic skiing

Skiers

Keiichi Sato competes in two sports: para-triathlon and para-Nordic skiing. The first sport he did was para-Nordic skiing. As a member of Team Japan, he went to the 2010 and 2014 Winter Paralympics. After para-triathlon became a Paralympic sport, Sato decided to try it. He then was part of Team Japan at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. He then went to the 2017 Triathlon World Championships. After that, he stopped competing in para-triathlon. He wanted to try to medal at the 2018 Winter Paralympics. He thought he needed to focus on para-Nordic skiing to do that.^[7]

Schedule and results

On 12 March, the 15 km race takes place, with standing and vision impaired women starting at 10:00 PM. Thee sprint classic qualification takes place on 14 March from 10:00 AM – 11:25 AM for both men and women in all classes. It is followed in the afternoon by the semifinals and finals. The classic race takes place on 17 March. The standing and visually impaired women's race takes place from 10:00 AM - 12:30.^[8]

Para-snowboarding

Snowboarders

Atsushi Yamamoto is a track and field competitor. He won a silver medal in the men's T42 long jump at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. In November 2017, he went to the World Para Snowboard World Cup in Landgraaf, Netherlands. The World Cup was his first para-snowboarding competition. Also there was Daniel Wagner of Denmark. Wagner won gold in the event which Yamamoto won silver. Both men had decided to compete internationally in snowboarding during the same year.^[7]

Schedule and results

The snowboard cross event starts on 12 March. It goesfrom 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM for all classes for both men and women.^[9] The slalom race is scheduled to take place on 16 March, going from 10:30 AM – 4:55 PM for men and women in all classes.^[8]

Para ice hockey

Main article: Para ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Paralympics

Summary

Key:

• OT – Overtime
• GWS – Match decided by penalty-shootout

Team	Group stage				Semifinal / Pl.	Final / BM / Pl.
	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Japan men's	South Korea L 1–4	United States L 0–10	Czech Republic L 0–3	4	Norway L 1–6	Sweden L 1–5	8

Mixed Tournament

Roster

Japan's team has 17 men. Their coach is Kojin Nakakita.^[10]

Team Japan

Name	Position	Role	Past Games	ref
Mikio Annaka	forward		2014	[10]
Shinobu Fukushima	goaltender		2014	[10]
Susumu Hirose	forward			[10]
Wataru Horie	forward			[10]
Hideaki Ishii	defenseman			[10]
Nao Kodama	forward			[10]
Masaharu Kumagai	forward	alternate captain		[10]
Eiji Misawa	defenseman		2014	[10]
Kazuya Mochizuki	goaltender			[10]
Keisuke Nagumo	forward			[10]
Toshiyuki Nakamura	defenseman			[10]
Taimei Shiba	forward		2014	[10]
Yoshihiro Shioya	forward			[10]
Satoru Sudo	defenseman	captain	2014	[10]
Kazuhiro Takahashi	forward	alternate captain	2014	[10]
Daisuke Uehara	defenseman		2014	[10]
Mamoru Yoshikawa	forward		2014	[10]

Qualification

Japan, Sweden and the Czech Republic were the last 3 teams that were able to go to the 2018 Games. They could go because of how they finished at the Qualification Tournament in October in Ostersund, Sweden in October 2017.^[11][12][13]

Preliminary round

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States	3	3	0	0	0	28	0	+28	9	Semifinals
2	South Korea (H)	3	1	1	0	1	7	11	−4	5
3	Czech Republic	3	1	0	1	1	5	13	−8	4	5–8th place semifinals
4	Japan	3	0	0	0	3	1	17	−16	0

Source: PyeongChang 2018
(H) Host

10 March 2018 15:30

South Korea

4–1 (0–0, 1–0, 3–1)

Japan

Gangneung Hockey Centre Attendance: 6,022

Game reference
	Yu Man-gyun	Goalies	Shinobu Fukushima	Referee: Owe Lüthcke Linesmen: Matt Clark Leon Wesley
	Jang D. (Kim Y., Jang J.) (PP) – 21:08 1–0 Jung – 30:51 2–0 Cho Y. (Cho B., Jung) – 35:56 3–0 Lee H. (Jang D., Lee Ji.) (PP) – 40:31 4–0 4–1 42:53 – Takahashi (Uehara, Kumagai) (PP)
	12 min	Penalties	14 min
	24	Shots	7

11 March 2018 12:00

United States

10–0 (3–0, 6–0, 1–0)

Japan

Gangneung Hockey Centre Attendance: 5,435

Game reference
	Jen Lee	Goalies	Shinobu Fukushima Kazuya Mochizuki	Referee: Kristijan Nikolic Linesmen: Matt Clark Han Youl
	McKee (Landeros) – 01:01 1–0 Roybal (Misiewicz) – 04:34 2–0 Grove (Farmer, DeQuebec) – 12:26 3–0 Landeros (Roybal, Farmer) (PP) – 20:25 4–0 Farmer – 20:55 5–0 McDermott (Page, DeQuebec) – 23:20 6–0 Roman (Page, Pauls) – 23:54 7–0 Roybal (Misiewicz) – 24:02 8–0 Roybal (McKee, Misiewicz) – 24:49 9–0 Wallace (Farmer, Pauls) – 38:25 10–0
	2 min	Penalties	4 min
	24	Shots	2

13 March 2018 19:00

Czech Republic

3–0 (0–0, 1–0, 2–0)

Japan

Gangneung Hockey Centre Attendance: 4,569

Game reference
	Michal Vápenka	Goalies	Shinobu Fukushima	Referee: Jonathan Morrison Linesmen: Han Youl Andreas Lundén
	Kubeš (Hábl) – 27:26 1–0 Šafránek (Hrbek, Krupička) – 33:11 2–0 Kubeš (ENG) – 44:42 3–0
	4 min	Penalties	4 min
	11	Shots	5

5–8th place semifinal

14 March 2018 20:00

Norway

6–1 (2–0, 3–1, 1–0)

Japan

Gangneung Hockey Centre Attendance: 3,919

Game reference
	Kjell Christian Hamar	Goalies	Shinobu Fukushima Kazuya Mochizuki	Referee: Johnathan Morrison Linesmen: Jan Vaněk Leon Wesley
	Bakke (Øiseth) (PP) – 02:25 1–0 Pedersen (Bøgle, Nordstoga) – 09:37 2–0 2–1 18:20 – Takahashi (Horie) (SH) Bøgle – 18:34 3–1 Pedersen (Hamre) – 18:55 4–1 Bakke (Værnes, Bøgle) – 20:02 5–1 Pedersen (Bøgle, Nordstoga) – 35:28 6–1
	0 min	Penalties	4 min
	14	Shots	6

Seventh place game

16 March 2018 16:00

Japan

1–5 (0–1, 1–2, 0–2)

Sweden

Gangneung Hockey Centre Attendance: 5,979

Game reference
	Shinobu Fukushima	Goalies	Ulf Nilsson	Referee: Owe Lüthcke Linesmen: Jan Vaněk Leon Wesley
	0–1 00:52 – Gyllsten (Kasperi, Meng) Takahashi (Uehara) – 16:25 1–1 1–2 19:19 – Ingvarsson (Meng, Kasperi) (PP) 1–3 27:33 – Kasperi (Hedberg) (SH) 1–4 37:24 – Holm (Rakos, Kasperi) 1–5 44:17 – Ingvarsson (Gyllsten, P. Nilsson)
	4 min	Penalties	4 min
	10	Shots	14

Media and television

For the first time, the Paralympic Games will be live on television. The 2018 Games will be on NHK.^[14] People can watch on NHK General TV and NHK Educational TV channels.^[14] Some will be televised with a resolution of 8K.^[14] There are going to be 62 hours of live coverage.^[14]