Hockey in Japan

[(1VB)freels]

I was wondering about this for some time. I know that there were some "Pro" teams in Japan. Owned by company's and such, but... Is there anyone in a league of any kind or do you know of such things in Japan? I will be going back in about a year or so and wanted to start playing there. Mys son also is a player(not playa) and we need to know if anyone out there could help. We are going to live in the Yokosuka area and could commute as far north as Saitama, east to Chiba and West to... You get the point. So if you know of any rinks that offer an Adult league and a youth hockey program, please advise. Thanks in advance!

[Blah Pete]

The pro league reformed a few years ago and is now called the Asian League Ice Hockey with teams in Japan, S. Korea and China.
http://www.alhockey.com/

The closest rink and teams to Yokosuka are at Higashi Kanagawa Ice Rink which across from the JR Higashi Kanagawa station (one stop from Yokohama).
You can get some more info at the Kanagawa Ice Hocket federation. They have kids, adults and womens teams http://www.kihf.net/detail.php?b=21

Thare are also a few places that set up rinks in the winter only. Where I live in Sagamihara they set up a rink over the pool during the winter months. There is a team there but I think it is more of a pickup league. I know some army guys from Camp Zama play there.

[Greji]

:) I was wondering about this for some time. I know that there were some "Pro" teams in Japan.

You are referring to the industrial league and although it has cut back since the bubble (all industrial sports leagues have done the same) for monetary reasons, they are still playing with a lot of Eastern European players that are trying to build up a profile to make the NHL. It still remains as semi-pro in title.

How old is your son? There used to be a couple of adult leagues that some of the FGs joined up with to play. However, in a lot of cases, they were just games to skate out on the ice, knock somebody down and generally brawl with rules. Putting the puck into the net was somewhat incidental.

[(1VB)freels]

This is great. My son is 7 and will be 8 going on 9 when we get there. He's a fast skater and has been playing for about 3 years. I wanted to make sure that he keeps up his skills while we are there. I will look that place up when we get there(Higashi Kanagawa). Thanks again.

[Mulboyne]

Boston.com: Where rising sun meets ice

For the NHL, with a $44 million-per-team payroll cap, the charge of $51.1 million for the Red Sox just to talk with Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka looks just a little out there. While Japanese baseball continues to make headlines, Japanese hockey chugs and sputters along in relative anonymity on the world stage. Ever since the Olympic Games were staged in Nagano in 1998 -- the first time NHL players were invited, en masse, by the Lords of the Rings -- the game hasn't exploded in Japan or elsewhere in Asia. Meanwhile, ex-NHL forward Derek Plante is playing for the Nippon Paper Cranes in Kushiro. Plante, 35, followed a path that ex-Bruin Joel Prpic took a few years ago when he hitched on with the Kokudo Bunnies, considered the Yankees of the former Japan Ice Hockey League. The Bunnies won 13 JIHL titles. In 2004-05, the JIHL disbanded, and now four Japanese squads, including Kokudo, are part of the nine-team Asian Hockey League that includes two clubs from China, two from Korea, and a team from Scandinavia, the Nordic Vikings, who play "home" games in Beijing. The Vikings last season were made up mostly of Swedes, with a sprinkling of Finns, and one player each from Norway, Iceland, and Japan...more...

[canman]

Last month the Asian League made a stop in Hachinohe, and I was asked to be the rinkside announcer. Kokudo was playing a team from China and the level of play was pretty bad. The Asian League invited an American referee to officiate the game, and we were talking afterwards and he was surprised at the level of play. He told me that the Kokuko team was at about division 2 university level. He was a little surprised to see Joel Prpic playing, but when I told him about the salary and the benefits he gets, he said he couldn't make anything like that back in North America. At best he would be getting about 40K, where as here he is making about $200K, not bad.

[Behan]

Just to add my amateur two cents...

I saw a video of an Asian League game in which the refs were letting a defender get away with hacking at the back of a Chinese forward's legs. The call finally came when he hit him so hard he took him down. I rarely see NHL so I don't know if that is allowed or not but I was pretty surprised the guy was getting away with so much and that the Chinese player was just taking it.
From what I have seen of club teams here is that their individual level seems OK(but then again I suck and am not really qualified to judge) but their team play is a bit bad. Some good skaters will skate with the puck all over the ice before they pass. A good Canadian team I saw in Tokyo(Thunderbirds) passed really well, in addition to having good skills, which is probably one reason they won their league regularly.

[Mulboyne]

"Born in Edmonton, Jamie McLennan is a former NHL goaltender who spent this season playing for the Nippon Paper Cranes of the ALIH (Asia League Ice Hockey). Nicknamed 'Noodles,' McLennan was drafted by the Islanders in 1991. He played 254 NHL games with the Flames, Rangers, Panthers, Wild, Blues and Isles, compiling a 80-109-33 record."



The Hockey News: Top 10 moments from the Japanese experience

...4. Watching Nasher [Tyson Nash - above right and below] hit unsuspecting players. The whole league was well aware of Tyson and myself signing with Nippon and I guess a lot of guys tried to see if they could stand up to him physically. Unfortunately, they soon experienced his special ability to crush people, even when carrying the puck. Players would try and catch Tyson with his head down and at the last second he would drop his shoulder and absolutely run them right over. It was like a man playing against boys. One night against OJI, he hit a guy so hard the guy’s helmet flew 10 feet in the air; I thought his head was still in it. Tyson did this regularly and for me it was quite entertaining to watch, especially because I could see the plays developing before they happened...

Other instalments here, here and here.

[Greji]

Somebody ought to let the Nasty Nasher know that his girl left.....with all the incoming pucks and high sticks he's taken, he may not have noticed....

[Doctor Stop]

Somebody needs to tell him that it's shoes off on the tatami, not shirts off on the tatami.

[Tommybar]

The shoes need to come off...one of the first things you learn here...

[Takechanpoo]

So from the next day this izakaya had to put up a signboard of "Japanese only" at entrance.

[GomiGirl]

So from the next day this izakaya had to put up a signboard of "Japanese only" at entrance.

Sadly this is probably true.

[Behan]

Not related to Japan at all but a good hockey video.


[YT]lv0-9Wi713o[/YT]

[Gilligan]

Not related to Japan at all but a good hockey video.


[YT]lv0-9Wi713o[/YT]

Thank you Behan. A Bobby Orr video is pertinent to any thread with hockey in the title.

[Mike Oxlong]

A must for any true hockey fan:

http://wickedwrister.com/?p=73

Long live Don Cherry's Rock 'em, Sock 'em Hockey, and Slapshot too

[Mulboyne]

Canadian Press: The Rabbits call it quits. Japanese hockey team closes due to economy

The Seibu Prince Rabbits, a Japanese ice hockey team with a 37-year history, is the latest casualty of Japan's economic crises. The Rabbits were disbanded Tuesday after the club's parent company, Prince Hotels Inc., was unable to find a new owner. Since announcing its withdrawal from the sport in December, the Seibu group held talks with more than 20 companies seeking a buyer for the team but found no takers. "I think they could have done more," Chris Wakabayashi, the team's Canadian-born coach said Wednesday. "They tried to negotiate with companies to take over the whole team and that's tough to do in this climate. It seems to me there was no Plan B and I think they just wanted to get out of the sport." Annual costs of running the team were estimated at US$5.1 million, while the average attendance for games was just 1,000. The decision leaves Seibu's players out of a job. Wakabayashi said about 12 or 15 players on the 30-man roster have a chance of finding a place on other teams in Asia or Europe. The Rabbits roster includes Richard Rochefort of North Bay, Ont., and Joel Prpic of Sudbury, Ont.

Seibu was a hockey powerhouse in Japan. The team won the Asia League championship twice and captured the national championship 11 times. The Asia League will be reduced to six teams and Wakabayashi said it will be tough going for a while. "There will be major cuts in expenses with the economy going the way it is," Wakabayashi said. "Hopefully, the league can hold its ground but it's going to be tough." In Japan, sports teams are more like promotional vehicles for major companies as opposed to independent profit-making entities. Players and coaches are company employees and their fate is directly linked to the financial health of the company. Japan, which has relied on exports to drive growth, has been pummelled by a global slowdown that has sapped foreign sales of its cars and other products. A stronger yen has exacerbated the pain by eroding exporters' earnings abroad. The world's second-largest economy now finds itself in its deepest recession since the Second World War. Hockey teams aren't the only ones effected. Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. is considering disbanding the NEC Blue Rockets of the men's Premier Volleyball League at the end of this season. Automaker Honda pulled out of Formula One racing in December while Subaru and Suzuki quit the World Rally Championship.

[BO-SENSEI]

The fact that these guys play in a rink smaller than my DI college it does not surprise me that the most famous hockey team in Japan would fold like this.

[Greji]

The fact that these guys play in a rink smaller than my DI college it does not surprise me that the most famous hockey team in Japan would fold like this.

Hey Seibu was a powerhouse for many years and they had some top Russian talent on the ice with them. We're not talking NHL, but we are also not talking shabby either! Folding had nothing to do with team. You have to remember that one of the owners was at one time arguably the richest man in the world and now most of his misstresses have more money than he does.

[BO-SENSEI]

Hey Seibu was a powerhouse for many years and they had some top Russian talent on the ice with them. We're not talking NHL, but we are also not talking shabby either! Folding had nothing to do with team. You have to remember that one of the owners was at one time arguably the richest man in the world and now most of his misstresses have more money than he does.

what does the size of rink have to do with the skill of the hockey team, the nhl has large rinks because lots of people go see them, the seibu may have been a great team but this is Japan and ice hockey is not popular, why would Japanese people pay money to see Russian hockey players. Thats why the team is folding, because not enough people go to the games.

[Mike Oxlong]

Thats why the team is folding, because not enough people go to the games.

You should be a consultant.

[Doctor Stop]

To remain competitive, Seibu needs to optimize their spectator inventory in order to assure cost certainty.

Or, have a meat draw between periods.

[Greji]

what does the size of rink have to do with the skill of the hockey team, the nhl has large rinks because lots of people go see them, the seibu may have been a great team but this is Japan and ice hockey is not popular, why would Japanese people pay money to see Russian hockey players. Thats why the team is folding, because not enough people go to the games.

Ice hockey is not popular? Well, I'll buy your lack of fans, but you seem to be missing something when you ask why Japanese people would pay to see Russian hockey players? Have you been on a rink playing before, or even out on the lake with tree branches and a squashed beer can? Kids in Hokkaido start when they're from five or six.

I couldn't go to Nagano, but I was at the Sapporo Olympics and the hockey games at Makomonai were the hardest venue to get tickets and the Russians were one of the most popular teams to go see. Of course it was still the Soviet and so they were hard to see in any sport for the Japanese, but Hockey was definately the thing.

The reason Seibu is folding is the lack of money. Of course the lack of fans plays, but like many sports there are other money making ventures involved.The scandals involving the Tsumis besides being a down turn for fans, also scared off sponsors, media and other sources of revenue normally available in sports. No money also means no promotional money to draw new fans, to fully equip the team, to build the newer and bigger rink that you seem tied up with, but conversely, if you're losing money across the board in your conglomerate, you're not even able to utilize the write off and make the team a tax shelter. I worked for many years in the management and operation of one of the largest sports in Japan and I can tell you that no sport lives on fans alone. Many could give a shit less if fans show or not. They don't provide enough revenue to support most sports. When you pay the big price for your ticket you may find that hard to believe, but for a lot of sports daily ticket sales is a success if it just breaks even.

[Behan]

Compared to the general population, maybe relatively few people play hockey but the level of the players here seems pretty high. As far as I know they don't seem to have lower level play like 'house league' and intramural. Everything seems to be more on the 'travel' hockey level. In other words, it's done seriously.
It's amazing how many good shakai-jin players will tell you they never started skating until they were in university. I know a guy who was a backup goalie for the Ice Bucks and he didn't start until he was eighteen.
It seems many universitites don't put much pressure on students to study so those guys, and girls, get lots of practice in.
Then there are the kids from Hokkaido, like Greji said. I bet if you check the rosters of the national and pro teams you'll see lots from Tomakomai and Kushiro.