Is there any videos online for todays matches? And also why is there no Tonami womens team? Is it just because they didnt sign up or was there any qualification period? Thank you
Wouldn't call it a surprise, really. As I said previously, Hokuto Bank have, in my opinion, the strongest doubles setup -Tanaka/Yonemoto have now won 3 of the last 4 against Fukuhiro and Matsumoto/Nagahara are ranked exactly 40 places higher than the Saishunkan juniors. Both matches were really close: Tanaka/Yonemoto vs Fukuhiro 21-12, 11-21, 21-18 and Matsumoto/Nagahara vs Shida/Matsuyama 13-21, 21-8, 21-19. Really interesting to see how Hokuto Bank will fare against Unisys. The latter have been cruising so far, even without Nozomi Okuhara playing a single match and with several "alternative" doubles setups. Takamatsu have only played their first league game of the season together against NTT today.
Some new members of Team B mentioned at the updated list : PDF | NBA Website • Total additional players : 6 Players (Team B : Men: 3 players ; Women: 3 players) List of those additional players are : Men's Players : 01. Yui Urai (Marusugi) 02. Kohei Gondo (Tonami) 03. Kenya Mitsuhashi (Nihon University) Women's Players : 01. Ayane Kurihara (Unisys) 02. Naru Shinoya (Unisys) 03. Rena Miyaura (Hosei University) Ayane Kurihara finally become Team B member. Kenya Mitsuhashi was the silver medalist at 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei. At individual event, Kenya Mitsuhashi/Katsuki Tamate lost to Korean pair Kim Jaehwan/Seo Seungjae at Final. While at team event, Kenya Mitsuhashi/Katsuki Tamate lost to home pair Lee Yang/Lee Jhehuei at Final, Japan got silver for Summer Universiade team event. (See also: Kenya Mitsuhashi/Rena Miyaura below) Rena Miyaura was the former partner of Takuro Hoki and Wakana Nagara at 2013 BWF World Junior Championships in Thailand. Takuro Hoki/Rena Miyaura lost to Frederik Mortensen/Maiken Fruergaard (DEN) at third round. Rena Miyaura/Wakana Nagahara lost to Huang Dongping/Jia Yifan (CHN) at third round Takuro Hoki/Rena Miyaura Rena Miyaura/Wakana Nagahara Kenya Mitsuhashi/Rena Miyaura are part of Japan mixed team at 2017 Summer Universiade. Being in Group A, Japan succeeded through knockout stage after defeated Poland 5-0 and Bhutan 5-0. Kenya Mitsuhashi/Rena Miyaura fielded when Japan met Poland, Mitsuhashi/Miyaura won straight game against Przemysław Szydłowski/Magdalena Witek. At quarter final (knockout stage begin with QF), Japan won 3-2 against Korea and Mitsuhashi/Miyaura contributed a decisive victory at the fifth match against Seo Seung Jae/Lee Seung Hui through rubber games 16-21, 21-14 and 21-17. At Semifinal, Mitsuhashi/Miyaura fielded as an opening match, they scored 1 point and make Japan leading against Malaysia. Yu Igarashi gave an additional points and Japan leading 2-0. After that Malaysia fought back and takes the next 2 matches to equalize 2-all. Japan won 3-2 in the end and through the final. Japan's team finished as second best team (got a silver medal) after suffering suffering a 0-3 defeat from the home team (Taipei). Katsuki Tamate/Kenya Mitsuhashi lost to Lee Yang/Lee Jhehuei straight games while the fifth match Kenya Mitsuhashi/Rena Miyaura not being played. Naru Shinoya/Hiroki Okamura was the 2017 Malaysia IC champion. (both of them are Team B member) Kohei Gondo/Tatsuya Watanabe was the 2017 Finnish IC finalist.
The first match to go against expectation. I guess the crucial match becomes Hokuto/Unisys. I'd pay for an S/J subscription ...
Tonami is traditionally a men's-only team, although there are now two female players (Ohori Aya and Nidaira Natsuki). I am not sure what the company's future objectives are, but as things stand, there are not enough female players to field.
I am sure that the matches will surface on YouTube soon. I have a subscription with the badminton section of J-Sports-On-Demand (J SPORTSオンデマンド) for 1,980 yen per month (viewable on computers and smartphones, etc.), but the website for this particular service is only in Japanese. On a different note (and if you are an S/J fan you may already know this), from next season, the S/J League (both the men's and women's divisions) will be expanded from the current eight to ten teams. The teams that are due to be promoted from the Badminton Nippon League (the second tier, so to speak) are: Men's: 1) JTEKT, 2) Tohoku Marks Women's: 1) Gifu Tricky Panders, 2) Hitachi Chemical This should add some extra life to, and possibly even result in a little more media coverage for the S/J League. That having been said, the most effective magnet for the media is the presence of Momota. The sport sorely needs him to recover as quickly as possible.
I don't know if that's particularly good; the lower teams in the league are already a definite tier down from the better teams. It would be sad to see if there was an even bigger gulf between the teams. I also assume coverage is only in Japan...
You are right about the fact that there seems to be a gulf between the level of the teams in the S/J League; especially this season. However, some of the companies supporting these news teams are large and well-known. This means there may be more of a cash-flow, and certainly extra publicity for the League. This is never a bad thing. Aspiring players, who do not quite make it into Tonami or Unisys, for example, will also look to these team as employment options.
I could not find any information about territorial restrictions in the contract; however, I would never recommend entering into any contractual relation if you are not 100% sure that you understand the content.
It's also a case of the absolute top teams being saturated. Tonami have 4 doubles now with the oldest players being 27 years old and the youngest being 18. They simply have no need for new players, as is true for all top teams. All the young talents will probably go elsewhere and, as you've pointed out, some players from top teams might also change teams if they are unhappy with their spot. That should really help develop the league into something more even. If you look at the age structure, no top team apart from Unysis needs to hire doubles players for years. Tonami Kamura/Sonoda 27/27 Hoki/Kobayashi 22/22 Gondo/Watanabe 26/26 Kaneko/Kubota 18/18 Unisys (M) Inoue/Kaneko 22/23 Endo/Watanabe 31/20 Okamura/Onodera 19/19 (The latter being at university, I don't know if the plan is to have him join afterwards) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saishunkan Fukushima/Hirota 24/23 Matsuyama/Shida 19/20 Ono/Imai 20/19 Fujii/Kakiiwa 29/28 Unisys (W) Matsutomo/Takahashi 25/27 Hoshi/Shinoya 21/23 Higashino/Nakanishi 21/22 Iwanaga 18 (I assume they'll "draft" her partner as well upon HS graduation) Hokuto Bank Tanaka/Yonemoto 25/27 Matsumoto/Nagahara 22/22 Murayama/Uratani 29/25 Yonex Fukuman/Yonao 25/25 Sakuramoto/Takahata 22/19 Hobara/Sone 19/19
The dramatic third game from the deciding third match. On the channel are also the other two games and the other two matches (Fukuhiro vs Tanaka/Yonemoto and Yamaguchi vs Kawakami)
Here are they: Japan Team for Badminton Asia Team Championships 2018 : Men's Team Singles Players • Kenta Nishimoto • Kazumasa Sakai • Kanta Tsuneyama • Kento Momota Doubles Players • Hiroyuki Endo • Yuta Watanabe • Takuro Hoki • Yugo Kobayashi • Keigo Sonoda • Takeshi Kamura Women's Team Singles Players • Akane Yamaguchi • Aya Ohori • Sayaka Sato • Nozomi Okuhara Doubles Players • Yuki Fukushima • Sayaka Hirota • Ayaka Takahashi • Misaki Matsutomo • Shiho Tanaka • Koharu Yonemoto
Instead of bring the second best MD, Japan send the fourth strongest MD (based on ranking) to the Asia Team Championships. I think Hiroyuki Endo is the men's team captain. And Endo/Watanabe will be fielded as second MD.
Wow, Hokuto Bank has the chance to top the women table if they win their 1 extra match not yet played!!
Remaining ties for the favourites: 28.01. Unisys - Hokuto Bank Saishunkan - NTT East 03.02. Hokuto Bank - Yonex 04.02. Saishunkan - Unisys Hokuto Bank - San-in Godo Bank Because of the Indonesia Masters, Unisys could miss Okuhara and Takamatsu while Hokuto Bank could be without Tanaka/Yonemoto for the tie on the 28th. And even if Hokuto Bank win vs Unisys, they are not through at all, because I can easily see them lose the tie vs Yonex (Sayaka Sato beating Kawakami and Sakuramoto/Takahata beating Nagamatsu). This is even tighter than I thought it would be, even Yonex still has a slight chance of winning it. Standings: https://www.sj-league.jp/#/standing
Tanaka/Yonemoto have just withdrawn from Indonesia Masters, so they will play for Hakuto Bank likely. Okuhara confirmed have been in Jakarta. While Takamatsu haven't withdrawn from Indonesia Masters.
