In Japan, it is the season of new beginnings, ... but also 'endings'. In December, I listed up the names of players who announced their retirement at the time of the SJ League Top 4 Tournament. This month, some additional announcements have been made, effective as of March 31, 2020. - Mine Ayumi, WS, Saishunkan (Former National Team B player). → Upon retirement from competitive badminton, Mine will continue to work at Saishunkan. - Gondo Kohei, XD, Tonami (Former National Team A player, who paired with Kurihara). → Will transfer to JTEKT as a player. - Takeshita Riichi, MS, Tonami (Former National Team A player and, from 2019, Assistant Coach at Tonami). → Will take up a position as coach at Ryukoku University, Japan. (Takeshita created waves when he defeated both Momota and Nishimoto at the 2017 All Japan Championships.) Apart from that, Naraoka Kodai (Namioka HS, National Team B) has already announced that he would be entering Nihon University, upon graduation from high school. When looking at the national team practice schedule for April, however, his affiliation was listed as IMG, a management and marketing concern that handles athletes, models, and has an added interest in the entertainment industry. Affiliated athletes include big names, such as Nishikori Kei, Osaka Naomi, Matsuyama Hideki (golf), Asada Mao, Ishikawa Kasumi (table tennis), Hirano Ayumu (snow-boarding), etc. However, the company seems to have a different complexion to UDN, the latter serving more to connect athletes with the community and/or society, at large.
Just in case anyone has access to Japanese TV/Cable TV channels, the following two programmes are scheduled to run tomorrow, Sunday March 29. 1. Cable TV: CS TV Asahi Channel 2, Terebi Asahi Badminton, 16:00-19:00 (Japan time) National A team Members (Nishimoto, Tsuneyama, Yamaguchi, Ohori, Endo/Watanabe, Nagahara/Matsutomo, Fukushima/Hirota, Higashino, etc.) will feature. Light-weight coverage, including not-too-serious interviews, e.g., answering ten questions in one minute, etc. 2. Mainstream TV: TBS, 情熱大陸 (Jonetsu Tairiku ), 23:00~23:30 (Japan time); Website: https://www.mbs.jp/jounetsu/ Documentary on Momota, showing him before and after the accident. It apparently reveals the feelings and insecurities that plagued him after the operation, and how he overcame them. There will be footage of him at home in Kagawa Prefecture, Shikoku. Here's a short snippet of the documentary, which is also available on Momota's twitter page. He actually says, "Right now, I think that I have fallen as far as I can; from here on, I can only move forward."
It is April 1, i.e., the beginning of various calendars (fiscal, school, employment, etc.) in Japan. NTT-East (https://www.ntt-east.co.jp/symbol/badminton/contents/member.html) and Unisys (https://www.unisys.co.jp/com/sponsors/badminton/team/index.html) have updated their players lists. Note that Shinoya Naru (XD, National Team B) has transferred from Unisys to NTT-East. This may mean that Yamashita Kyohei will also be joining the team when he graduates from university. Incidentally, Tonami does not seem to have picked up any new players.
In light of the spread of COVID-19, the NBA has cancelled all four national training camps that were due to take place from mid-April to early May. Interestingly, however, the Japan Ranking Circuit (arguably Japan's second most important domestic tournament) is still projected to go ahead on May 23-27, albeit without an audience. The final decision as whether to hold the tournament will be made on April 19. Usually, National Team B players comprise the core of the Ranking Circuit. However, considering the lack of opportunities to participate in any tournaments, National Team A players may also feature. The entry deadline falls on April 16.
What happened to the Yonex badminton team? The guy who played against Momota in the video is now a doubles player in Hitachi.
You are right; it is not going to happen. The Ranking Circuit was postponed shortly after Tokyo declared a state of emergency. Now, on top of that postponement, the following major domestic competitions have been cancelled: 1. 70th All Japan Business Corporation Championships, June 24-28 2. 36th Wakaba Cup All Japan Pupils' Team Championships (Elementary School), July 18-21 3. 71st All Japan Inter High-School Championships, August 7-12 4. 21st Daihatsu All Japan Elementary School ABC Championships, August 14-16 5. 50th All Japan Junior High School Championships, August 20-23 Still up in the air, we have: 1. Yonex Akita Masters (BWF Super 100), August 18-23 2. 63rd All Japan Members Championships, September 5-9 3. Daihatsu Yonex Japan Open (BWF Super 750), September 22-27
Something's wrong. Refreshed my browser several times because I thought I was the only one having this problem. Suddenly, cannot see Kento Momota's thread. I hope they have back ups.
Lol I lost over 150 of my own posts and 118 likes. @kurako lost a crap metric ton of posts and likes as well
I just scrolled to the bottom of this page, clicked on "contact" and made a report to Badminton Central about the missing thread for "Kento Momota." I hope they will look into this mysterious issue. Also, I hope they have a backup. Otherwise someone should start a new thread for Kento Momota?
This is really heart-breaking. If there is no recovery, it means that hours and hours of input have been lost. To be honest, I don't think that I have the reserves to start again. Actually, a while back it crossed my mind that something may possibly go awry, and I started copying and pasting Momota's thread. As you can imagine, this was a totally brain-numbing exercise and, unfortunately, I only got as far as December 2017 In short, most of Momota's comeback story was left uncopied. I had been hoping that the thread would be up and running again within a day or two; the fact that there has been no action is worrying, and may signify that the issue is more serious than at first imagined. But whatever the case, don't start a new thread until it has been ascertained that Momota's current thread is well and truly defunct. I was hoping to get an update from @Cheung; but he may be too busy.
Is Badminton Central the only place we can go to to participate and get info from Momota's fans? Or is there another English forum for Japanese professional players? If there are other English forums for Japanese badminton players, please let me know.