Japan National Yoyo Contest 2015 1A Division

On the 2nd and 3rd of May, Yusuke Otsuka performed his best ever freestyle and achieved 2nd place. This year, Yusuke managed to cut down on mistakes and performed a really consistent routine.
He really captured the audience with his signature style, using electronic music and presenting each trick distinctively to match the music.
The second half of Yusuke’s freestyle really demonstrated the amount of work he’s been putting into horizontal tricks, and he managed to end a really difficult horizontal combo with a great finishing neck-bind.


Akitoshi Tokubuchi placed in at 6th this year.
His routine was focused on putting on a great performance, and was a brushed-up version of his JN2014 freestyle where he came 2nd.
His music and stage use were second to none on the day. The routine was a prime example of perfect freestyle construction.


Tatsuya Fujisaka placed 7th.
Tatsuya’s style has always focused on cutting out filler, and it has been a formula for success for him for a long period. This year he did exactly that, and pushed the limits of trick depth and density in his routine.
He demonstrated a slightly new approach to his routines by landing some superb and risky new tricks.


Ryota Ogi came in at 9th.
Ryota performed in his unique signature style, throwing speedy, dynamic, and risky tricks relentlessly to rock music. He managed to perform a classic routine, without any major mistakes.


Masahiro Terada came in at 10th and secured his worlds prelim seed.
Masahiro is best known for his distinctive tricks. This year he worked hard to polish up a first class freestyle. His subtle use of music ques gave his routine a real cool-factor and made it stand out from the rest.


Yamaki Iori took 11th this year.
This year Yamaki pushed his yo-yoing further, increasing trick density and the use of subtle music ques. He came into the competition with a routine significantly harder than his 3rd place routine at the World Yo-yo Contest last year.
Unfortunately, he had some poor binds during the middle and end of his routine, which had a real knock-on effect on the second half.
We really have high hopes for Yamaki at Worlds this year, and are excited to see his aggressive approach to freestyling on the big stage.


Toru Miyazaki came in at 12th.
This year was Toru’s first Japan Nationals, it was hard to believe that he was a new-comer as he oozed confidence and landed technical trick after technical trick. Certainly a player to look out for.


Hirotaka Akiba was 13th place this year.
An unfortunate tangle at the start of his routine meant that he lost a lot of valuable time and points, but he managed to pull through towards the end of his routine. His chop-sticks style tricks in particular were fantastic to see.