From Queen Kaori Sakamoto to Momone Chiba & Ami Nakai… The golden age of Japanese women’s figure skating has come again!

Kaori Sakamoto celebrates her final moments.

The queen left the rink in her prime.

At the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czech Republic (March 25-29, Japan time), Kaori Sakamoto (25) scored her best total of 238.28 points. She ended her 21-year active career with her fourth victory, the single most by a Japanese skater, surpassing Mao Asada (35)’s three victories. Pro skater Takahito Mura paid tribute to her.

Any skater would have wanted to finish his career with a brilliant record,” he said. Sakamoto won the silver medal at the Milano Olympics, so no one would have complained if she had retired there. Still, the fact that Sakamoto decided to compete in the World Championships this time, even though she was ranked second in the world, probably indicates that her frustration outweighed her joy.
This competition was the month after the Olympics, so the adjustment was quite difficult. It is no mean feat, not only physically, but also to rebuild one’s mind in a short period of time right after a big competition. Even for someone as talented as Sakamoto, the risk of suffering a disastrous defeat and retiring was not low. But she still won the competition with a brilliant performance, and she is still a tremendous athlete. I am sure that she will continue to be a leader in the figure skating world.

After Sakamoto’s performance, she and Momone Chiba (20), who won the silver medal at the same competition, embraced with tears in their eyes. It was like a ceremony symbolizing the generational change in the Japanese women’s figure skating world.

Chiba, like Sakamoto, has been able to use her overall strengths, such as suppleness, depth of expression, and rhythmic steps, to achieve 4th place at the Milano Olympics. He has been stable in this competition as well, and is in the runner-up position. She is also open to triple axel and quadruple jumps. If she can add big tricks to her performance, she can aim for the top of the world.

Deep performances” are the key to improving.

Chiba, who was entrusted with the future by Sakamoto, is now building the golden age of Japanese figure skating with Ami Nakai (17), who won the bronze medal at the Milano Olympics, surpassing herself.

Nakai’s weapons are her physical ability to succeed in big feats and her mental strength to show her ability on the big stage. Although her triple axel was a dud this competition, due to the difficulty of adjustment, she maintained a high success rate in her first year as a senior skater, which is a good sign, and it is no wonder that she won the International Skating Union’s Best Newcomer Award. She will be able to master quadruple eventually.

However, under the current rules, it is difficult to score more points by focusing only on jumps. There is room for growth in basic technique and expressiveness. If she can transform her performance from youthful to deep like Sakamoto’s, Nakai should make a further leap forward,” said Mura.

Next season, Mao Shimada (17), who became the first Japanese woman in history to land a triple axel and a quadruple toeloop at the same time, will also switch to the senior ranks, and the three of them may replace Sakamoto to lead women’s figure skating and dominate the podium at the Olympics.

From the April 17/24, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY