2021 Japan Curling Championships
The 2021 Japan Curling Championships were held from February 8 to 14 at the Wakkanai City Midori Sports Park in Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan. Both the men's and women's events were played in a round robin format which qualified four teams for a page playoff.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was reduced from its usual nine teams to just seven teams. The winning teams earned the right to represent Japan at the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship and the 2021 World Women's Curling Championship respectively.
The 2021 championship served as a qualifier to Team Japan for the 2022 Winter Olympics for both [Hokkaido Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo|Consadole Sapporo|Consadole]'s Yuta Matsumura and Loco Solare's Satsuki Fujisawa. Because Consadole won their third straight national title, they were named the Japanese representatives for the 2021 Olympic Qualification Event. Loco Solare lost in the final to Hokkaido Bank's Sayaka Yoshimura, forcing a best-of-five trial between the two rinks to determine who would represent Japan at the qualification event.
Summary
On the men's side, Consadole won their third consecutive and overall national championship. Through the round robin, the team, represented by Yuta Matsumura, Tetsuro Shimizu, Yasumasa Tanida, Shinya Abe and Kosuke Aita, finished in second place with a 5–1 record. They ranked behind the Tokoro Junior team led by Takumi Maeda, who were the surprise of the event. SC Karuizawa Club and TM Karuizawa also qualified for the playoffs, each going 4–2 in the round robin. In the 1 vs. 2 page playoff, Consadole took one in an extra end to edge Tokoro Junior 9–8 while TM Karuizawa stole one in the tenth end to eliminate SC Karuizawa Club 5–4. In the semifinal, Tokoro Junior scored four points in the second end and stole three ends en route to an 8–5 victory over TM Karuizawa. Experience prevailed in the gold medal game as Consadole took three in the eighth end and stole a single in the ninth to hold off Tokoro Junior 9–7 and win their third consecutive national title. Since this edition of Consadole formed in 2018, the team has had many successes such as a silver medal at the 2019 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships and a fourth-place finish at the 2019 World Men's Curling Championship.The women's event saw Hokkaido Bank, skipped by Sayaka Yoshimura, win their second national championship with the first coming in 2015 under skip Ayumi Ogasawara. The Hokkaido Bank team of Yoshimura, Kaho Onodera, Anna Ohmiya, Yumie Funayama and Ayami Ito finished 5–1 through the round robin in second place, trailing defending national champions Loco Solare who finished a perfect 6–0. Chubu Electric Power went 4–2 while the playoff picture was rounded out by Fujikyu at 3–3. Loco Solare continued their dominant play into the playoffs while they downed Hokkaido Bank 9–4 in the 1 vs. 2 game while Chubu Electric bounced Fujikyu 7–4. Team Yoshimura rebounded in the semifinal game, defeating Chubu Electric 8–2 to advance to the gold medal game. Hokkaido Bank stole two in the third end of the final to lead 3–1 but Loco Solare quickly wrestled the lead back to go up 5–4 after six. After trading singles in ends eight and nine, Team Fujisawa led 6–5 heading into the tenth end. There, Hokkaido Bank scored two points to win 7–6 and claim the national title. Since Ogasawara retired from competitive curling in 2018, the Hokkaido Bank rink won two consecutive bronze medals in 2019 and 2020. The current team found notable success at the 2019 Masters Grand Slam of Curling event where, after entering the event seeded twelfth out of fifteen teams, they reached the final before losing to Tracy Fleury.
Men
Qualification
The following teams qualified to participate in the 2021 Japan Curling Championship:| Qualification method | Berths | Qualifying team |
| 2020 Champion | 1 | Consadole |
| 2020 Runner-Up | 1 | TM Karuizawa |
| Hokkaido Region | 1 | Tokoro Junior |
| Tōhoku Region | 1 | Team Iwate |
| Kanto Region | 1 | Team Tani |
| Central Region | 1 | SC Karuizawa Club |
| West Japan Region | 1 | Okayama CA |
Teams
The teams are listed as follows:| Team | Skip | Third | Second | Lead | Alternate | Locale |
| Consadole | Yuta Matsumura | Tetsuro Shimizu | Yasumasa Tanida | Shinya Abe | Kosuke Aita | Kitami |
| Okayama CA | Hiroki Yoshioka | Hiromitsu Fujinaka | Hiroshi Fukui | Yusuke Nonomura | Okayama | |
| SC Karuizawa Club | Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi | Riku Yanagisawa | Satoshi Koizumi | Fukuhiro Ohno | Taisei Kanai | Karuizawa |
| Team Iwate | Kenji Tomabechi | Eiwa Matsubara | Tadashi Sato | Mitsuru Kikuchi | Kazuto Yamaguchi | Iwate |
| Team Tani | Ryutaro Tani | Shunta Mizukami | Kohei Okamura | Daiki Yamazaki | Takuya Ishikawa | Tokyo |
| TM Karuizawa | Yusuke Morozumi | Masaki Iwai | Ryotaro Shukuya | Kosuke Morozumi | Karuizawa | |
| Tokoro Junior | Takumi Maeda | Uryu Kamikawa | Hiroki Maeda | Asei Nakahara | Kitami |
Round robin standings
''Final Round Robin Standings''Round robin results
All draws are listed in Japan Standard Time.Draw 1
''Monday, February 8, 9:00''Draw 3
''Monday, February 8, 18:00''Draw 5
''Tuesday, February 9, 13:30''Draw 7
''Wednesday, February 10, 9:00''Draw 9
''Wednesday, February 10, 18:00''Draw 11
''Thursday, February 11, 13:30''Draw 13
''Friday, February 12, 9:00''Playoffs
1 vs. 2
''Friday, February 12, 18:00''3 vs. 4
''Friday, February 12, 18:00''Semifinal
''Saturday, February 13, 15:00''Final
''Sunday, February 14, 10:00''Women
Qualification
The following teams qualified to participate in the 2021 Japan Curling Championship:| Qualification method | Berths | Qualifying team |
| 2020 Champion | 1 | Loco Solare |
| 2020 Runner-Up | 1 | Chubu Electric Power |
| Hokkaido Region | 1 | Hokkaido Bank |
| Tōhoku Region | 1 | Aomori CA |
| Kanto Region | 1 | Fujikyu |
| Central Region | 1 | SC Karuizawa Club |
| West Japan Region | 1 | Team Kurashiki |
Teams
The teams are listed as follows:| Team | Skip | Third | Second | Lead | Alternate | Locale |
| Aomori CA | Shinobu Aota | Kaoru Ito | Natsuki Saito | Ayako Yoshida | Chieri Yamashita | Aomori |
| Chubu Electric Power | Ikue Kitazawa | Chiaki Matsumura | Seina Nakajima | Hasumi Ishigooka | Minori Suzuki | Nagano |
| Fujikyu | Tori Koana | Yuna Kotani | Mao Ishigaki | Arisa Kotani | Michiko Tomabechi | Yamanashi |
| Hokkaido Bank | Sayaka Yoshimura | Kaho Onodera | Anna Ohmiya | Yumie Funayama | Ayami Ito | Sapporo |
| Loco Solare | Satsuki Fujisawa | Chinami Yoshida | Yumi Suzuki | Yurika Yoshida | Kotomi Ishizaki | Kitami |
| SC Karuizawa Club | Ami Enami | Asuka Kanai | Junko Nishimuro | Mone Ryokawa | Nagano | |
| Team Kurashiki | Kaori Nobuki | Yuri Takahara | Yukari Ido | Ai Kawada | Ryoko Kawada | Okayama |