2023 Japan Curling Championships
The 2023 Japan Curling Championships were held from January 29 to February 5 at the Tokoro Curling Club in Tokoro, Kitami, 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.
After being pushed to May in 2022 due to the 2022 Winter Olympics, the championship returned to its normal dates from the end of January to the start of February. The winning teams earned the right to represent Japan at the 2023 World Men's Curling Championship and the 2023 World Women's Curling Championship respectively.
Summary
Both the men's and women's champions from 2022 were able to defend their titles in this year's championship.On the men's side, SC Karuizawa Club, represented by Riku Yanagisawa, Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Takeru Yamamoto and Satoshi Koizumi, won their second consecutive and tenth overall national championship. The team finished 7–1 through the round robin portion of the event, losing their last round robin game to Kitami Association who finished first overall at 7–1. In the 1 vs. 2 page playoff, trailing 9–6 after eight ends, SC Karuizawa Club scored two in the ninth end, stole a single in the tenth end, and stole two more in the extra end for an 11–9 victory. Kitami Association went on to defeat Consadole 7–1 in the semifinal to set up a rematch in the gold medal game. SC Karuizawa Club took two in the fourth end to open up a 3–1 lead, and later led 4–2 after eight ends. In the ninth, the defending champions stole two points en route to claiming the national title once again. SC Karuizawa Club qualified Japan for the 2023 World Men's Curling Championship by finishing fourth at the 2022 Pan Continental Curling Championships.
In the women's event, Team Loco Solare, with Satsuki Fujisawa, Chinami Yoshida, Yumi Suzuki, Yurika Yoshida and Kotomi Ishizaki won their second consecutive and fourth national championship since joining for the 2015–16 season. After the round robin, Team Fujisawa finished tied for first with Chubu Electric Power and Philoseek Aomori. Since they had all gone 1–1 against each other, positions for the playoffs were determined through draw to the button totals, which Loco Solare had the best of, followed by Chubu Electric in second and Aomori in third. The playoff picture was complete by SC Karuizawa Club. In the 1 vs. 2 game, Loco Solare came back from a 4–2 deficit, stealing four consecutive ends to defeat Chubu Electric 7–4. SC Karuizawa Club also came from behind in the 3 vs. 4 game, coming back from an 8–1 deficit to win 11–9 thanks to a steal of five in the eighth end. SC Karuizawa Club then beat Chubu Electric 7–6 in the semifinal to eliminate Japan's representative at the previous World Women's Curling Championship. In the final, the Fujisawa rink got out to a 4–0 lead after three ends, eventually taking the championship 7–5 over SC Karuizawa Club. Loco Solare qualified Japan for the 2023 World Women's Curling Championship by winning gold at the 2022 Pan Continental Curling Championships.
Men
Qualification
The following teams qualified to participate in the 2023 Japan Curling Championship:| Qualification method | Berths | Qualifying team |
| 2022 Champion | 1 | SC Karuizawa Club |
| 2022 Runner-Up | 1 | Sapporo International University |
| Hokkaido Region | 1 | Kitami Association |
| Tōhoku Region | 1 | Miyagi CA |
| Kanto Region | 1 | Team Ogiwara |
| Central Region | 1 | TM Karuizawa |
| West Japan Region | 1 | Okayama CA |
| Wild Card 1 | 1 | Team Ichimura |
| Wild Card 2 | 1 | Consadole |
Teams
The teams are listed as follows:| Team | Skip | Third | Second | Lead | Alternate | Locale |
| Consadole | Tetsuro Shimizu | Haruto Ouchi | Shinya Abe | Sota Tsuruga | Minori Suzuki | Kitami |
| Kitami Association | Kohsuke Hirata | Shingo Usui | Ryota Meguro | Kosuke Aita | Yoshiya Miura | Kitami |
| Miyagi CA | Kotaro Noguchi | Yuto Kamada | Hiroshi Kato | Yuki Yoshimura | Hayato Fujimura | Miyagi |
| Okayama CA | Hiroki Yoshioka | Hiromitsu Fujinaka | Yusuke Nonomura | Makoto Takahashi | Atsushi Kamigaito | Okayama |
| Sapporo International University | Go Aoki | Hayato Sato | Kouki Ogiwara | Kazushi Nino | Ayato Sasaki | Sapporo |
| SC Karuizawa Club | Riku Yanagisawa | Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi | Takeru Yamamoto | Satoshi Koizumi | Karuizawa | |
| Team Ichimura | Takanori Ichimura | Daisuke Sonoyama | Seiji Yamamoto | Miki Yamamoto | Nagano | |
| Team Ogiwara | Ryo Ogiwara | Satoru Tsukamoto | Wataru Henmi | Nobuhito Kasahara | Haruki Watanabe | Tokyo |
| TM Karuizawa | Yusuke Morozumi | Yuta Matsumura | Ryotaro Shukuya | Kosuke Morozumi | Karuizawa |
Round robin standings
''Final Round Robin Standings''Round robin results
All draws are listed in Japan Standard Time.Draw 1
''Sunday, January 29, 9:00''Draw 3
''Sunday, January 29, 18:00''Draw 5
''Monday, January 30, 13:30''Draw 7
''Tuesday, January 31, 9:00''Draw 9
''Tuesday, January 31, 18:00''Draw 11
''Wednesday, February 1, 13:30''Draw 13
''Thursday, February 2, 9:00''Draw 15
''Thursday, February 2, 18:00''Draw 17
''Friday, February 3, 13:30''Playoffs
1 vs. 2
''Saturday, February 4, 9:00''3 vs. 4
''Saturday, February 4, 9:00''Semifinal
''Saturday, February 4, 15:00''Final
''Sunday, February 5, 9:00''Women
Qualification
The following teams qualified to participate in the 2023 Japan Curling Championship:| Qualification method | Berths | Qualifying team |
| 2022 Champion | 1 | Loco Solare |
| 2022 Runner-Up | 1 | Chubu Electric Power |
| Hokkaido Region | 1 | Hokkaido Bank |
| Tōhoku Region | 1 | Philoseek Aomori |
| Kanto Region | 1 | Tokyo Metropolitan Institute |
| Central Region | 1 | SC Karuizawa Club |
| West Japan Region | 1 | Team Hiroshima |
| Wild Card 1 | 1 | LS Kitami |
| Wild Card 2 | 1 | Aomori CA |
Teams
The teams are listed as follows:| Team | Skip | Third | Second | Lead | Alternate | Locale |
| Aomori CA | Rin Suzuki | Natsuki Saito | Juuna Nagaya | Shinyu Matsuyama | Aizawa Sora | Aomori |
| Chubu Electric Power | Ikue Kitazawa | Seina Nakajima | Minori Suzuki | Hasumi Ishigooka | Chiaki Matsumura | Nagano |
| Hokkaido Bank | Momoha Tabata | Miku Nihira | Mikoto Nakajima | Ayami Ito | Sae Yamamoto | Sapporo |
| Loco Solare | Satsuki Fujisawa | Chinami Yoshida | Yumi Suzuki | Yurika Yoshida | Kotomi Ishizaki | Kitami |
| LS Kitami | Honoka Sasaki | Mari Motohashi | Miki Hayashi | Mayumi Saito | Yako Matsuzawa | Kitami |
| Philoseek Aomori | Misaki Tanaka | Miori Nakamura | Haruka Kihara | Hiyori Ichinohe | Yuuna Harada | Aomori |
| SC Karuizawa Club | Asuka Kanai | Ami Enami | Junko Nishimuro | Mone Ryokawa | Miyu Ueno | Nagano |
| Team Hiroshima | Riho Zaikan | Akari Iwatani | Haruna Yamauchi | Ai Kawada | Sachiko Zaikan | Hiroshima |
| Tokyo Metropolitan Institute | Yumi Suzuki | Kyoka Kuramitsu | Aki Goto | Miho Fujimori | Tori Koana | Tokyo |