To give a brief background: I grew up in Kobe, Japan and my Dad is Canadian and for that reason, we often visited relatives in Ottawa and stayed at our family cottage near Renfrew.
The search for NHL-related things
When I was in third grade, my parents put me on a local Japanese ice hockey team, which made me intrigued about the sport. After I learned about the National Hockey League (NHL), I started watching highlights from time to time. On top of that, when I went to various ice hockey stadiums and shops, I looked for NHL-related things and was successful every once in a while.
In the ice hockey stores/shops, they sell jerseys and clothes with players’ names on the back so I always looked to see which teams and players were being sold. As I have family in Ottawa, I naturally was pulled towards cheering for the Ottawa Senators, a team in the NHL, and looked for goods relating to the team but was unsuccessful. This is likely due to the team being a small-market team, meaning they aren’t covered that often. However, two times I found an Erik Karlsson poster and was delighted about my discovery.
Japanese TV and newspapers
Furthermore, I tried to find NHL-related news on TV or in the newspaper and I was usually unsuccessful. Most mornings, I woke up, went to the newspaper and flipped to the sports section looking at the scores from the day before. At times there was a tiny section where it displays the scores and some news from the NHL. However, on the TV, there is rarely any ice hockey news (I’ve never seen any to do with the NHL) but they do occasionally broadcast one or two games from the Asia League. Due to this, I have a subscription to NHL.com so that I can watch the games, especially the Ottawa Senators and cheer them on.
Recently there was a pretty big ice hockey tournament in Japan and they broadcasted a few games on one of the mainstream channels. As I grew older, I started using my computer more often and got my news from various websites. This was the first thing I did every morning after I woke up.
What youth ice hockey is like
As I am on a local ice hockey team, I have experienced what youth hockey in Japan is like. There are only a few tournaments throughout the year, so the number of games a team plays is not consistent. This is especially prevalent for the weaker teams as depending on the tournaments, they can only play a game or two as they get knocked out quite early.
Additionally, when players get older, the top players in weaker regions, such as the region I’m in which is Kansai, tend to move to places that are stronger in hockey, such as Kanto (a region where Tokyo is located in). This causes the skill gap between regions to increase and this is prevalent in national tournaments, as teams in regions such as Hokkaido tend to win. Top players also move to countries where the level of hockey is higher, such as America or Canada. In the last couple of years, players such as Yusaku Ando and Yu Sato made this transition.
What I experienced
I live in a region where ice hockey isn’t so big so I only have practice once or twice a week. In order to improve, I went to various camps and practiced with different teams. A few of these camps involved being taught by top Japanese players such as Yushirou Hirano, Yu Sato and players from the Japanese women’s national team and seeing and being on the ice with Yutaka Fukufuji (the only Japanese player ever to play in the NHL). There were also other opportunities such as being taught by a national team coach and playing in great stadiums, such as one of the stadiums used for the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Although I would have liked to play against players that were on a similar level to me more consistently (my team got plummeted at times), I’ve had good opportunities and enjoyed playing ice hockey in Japan overall.
My hopes
It would be nice if ice hockey becomes a bigger sport in Japan and more people start playing, especially in the region I am in. In a recent tournament, I had to play three games, playing the entire game (15 minute periods, 5-minute intermission), in the first two games and around 40 minutes (in total) the last game. This was because of the limited number of players on the team. It would also be nice if games were played more frequently, maybe around two or three times per month during the season (outside of tournaments). This would help improve the level of hockey and will likely grow the popularity of the sport. Once this occurs, more ice hockey-related things will pop up, whether it is on TV, in the newspaper or on the streets.