The revised Japanese domestic rankings have been uploaded onto the NBA's homepage (https://www.badminton.or.jp/ranking/index.html#ranking20171208), reflecting the results of the All Japan Championships. I have listed up the top ten MS and WS, and top five MD and WD. (Rankings for November 2017, i.e., last month, are shown in parentheses ( )) . Players who have been confirmed as 2018 National Team A members are typed in bold ; National Team B members are in italics (updated as of December 12). A. MS--- From 2018 Team A = 5 players; Team B = 5 players 1. (1) Nishimoto Kenta: 3840 2. (2) Sakai Kazumasa: 3655 3. (3) Momota Kento: 2920 4. (6) Takeshita Riichi: 2660 5. (5) Tsuneyama Kanta: 2625 6. (4) Ueda Takuma: 2446.60 7. (7) Igarashi Yu: 2019.73 8. (8) Onodera Yusuke: 1917.04 9. (10) Naraoka Kodai: 1665 10. (9) Maruo Ryotaro: 1576 B. WS--- From 2018 Team A = 5 players; Team B = 5 players 1. (2) Yamaguchi Akane: 5515 2. (1) Okuhara Nozomi: 5100 3. (3) Sato Sayaka: 4185.33 4. (4) Ohori Aya: 3285 5. (5) Mitani Minatsu: 2979.45 6. (6) Kawakami Saena: 2815 7. (8) Takahashi Asuka: 2650.73 8. (9) Mine Ayumi: 2629.65 9. (10) Nidaira Natsuki: 2525 10. (7) Suzuki Haruko: 2339.58 C. MD--- From 2018 Team A = 4 pairs; Team B = 3 pairs 1. (1) Sonoda/Kamura: 11300 2. (2) Inoue/Kaneko: 8050 3. (3) Hoki/Kobayashi: 6900 4. (4) Endo/Watanabe: 6457.97 5. (6) Watanabe/Mitsuhashi: 4735.94 D. WD--- From 2018 Team A = 5 pairs; Team B = 3 pairs 1. (1) Takahashi/Matsutomo: 11660 2. (3) Fukushima/Hirota: 11015 3. (2) Yonemoto/Tanaka: 9994.40 4. (4) Fukuman/Yonao: 8180 5. (5) Takahashi/Higashino: 7750 + Nagahara/Matsumoto
And here is the National Team A & B members for the 2018 calendar year: https://www.badminton.or.jp/national/member.html
As far as MS is concerned, Ueda Takuma (formerly National Team A), Shimono Hashiru, Watanabe Koki, and Yamazaki Naoki (formerly National Team B), have all left the fold. Incidentally, the team schedule for 2018 (divided into National Teams A & B) has also been uploaded at https://www.badminton.or.jp/national/schedule2018.html.
So that is a real shakeup for B squad. For they leave of their own accord or were not selected for B squad?
This is exactly the teams I wanted Great to see Saena Kawakami finally getting a deserved spot on team A and Ayumi Mine on team B A well deserved Team A spot for the youngsters Nagahara/ Matsumoto Surprised that Fukuman/ Yonao did not get a spot on team A given they ranked well into the top 10 and will as such be expected to play mandatory tournaments Takahashi/ Higashino ? Asuka takahashi I suppose? Anyways great to see Higashino in team A in both mixed and women's double
Interesting question. Total newcomers Obayashi Takuma and Koga Minoru are the winners of the 2017 Inter-High School and Inter-Collegiate Championships, respectively. They will probably have been offered a place on National Team B as a result of this. Ueda Takuma may well have left on his own accord (...but I have no evidence to support this). The demotion from National Team A must have been difficult to stomach, ... and he he sliding down both domestic and international rankings at an age (he's 28) from which it may be difficult to clamber up again. By contrast, the other three who were dropped, i.e., Shimono, Watanabe, and Yamazawa, are still young enough to stage a comeback.
2018 Japan National Team Member MS Team A Member 01. Riichi Takeshita (Tonami) 02. Kenta Nishimoto (Tonami) 03. Kazumasa Sakai (Unisys) 04. Kanta Tsuneyama (Tonami) 05. Kento Momota (NTT-East) Team B Member 01. Yusuke Onodera (Unisys) 02. Yu Igarashi (Chuo University) 03. Kodai Naroaka (Namioka High School) 04. Minoru Koga (Waseda University) 05. Takuma Obayashi (Saitama Sakae High School) WS Team A Member 01. Akane Yamaguchi (Saishunkan) 02. Aya Ohori (Tonami) 03. Sayaka Sato (Yonex) 04. Saena Kawakami (Hokuto Bank) 05. Nozomi Okuhara (Unisys) Team B Member 01. Ayumi Mine (Saishunkan) 02. Minatsu Mitani (NTT-East) 03. Natsuki Nidaira (Tonami) 04. Haruko Suzuki (St. Ursula Gakuin Eichi High School) 05. Asuka Takahashi (Futaba Mirai Gakuen High School) MD Team A Member 01. Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe (Unisys) 02. Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi (Tonami) 03. Keigo Sonoda/Takeshi Kamura (Tonami) 04. Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko (Unisys) Team B Member 01. Akira Koga/Taichi Saito (NTT-East) 02. Hiroki Okamura/Masayuki Onodera (Unisys/Waseda University) 03. Mahiro Kaneko/Yunosuke Kubota (Futaba Mirai Gakuen High School) WD Team A Member 01. Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (Saishunkan) 02. Ayaka Takahashi/Misaki Matsutomo (Unisys) 03. Shiho Tanaka/Koharu Yonemoto (Hokuto Bank) 04. Wakana Nagahara/Mayu Matsumoto (Hokuto Bank) Team B Member 01. Naoko Fukuman/Kurumi Yonao (Yonex) 02. Misato Aratama/Akane Watanabe (NTT East) 03. Ayako Sakuramoto/Yukiko Takahata (Yonex) 04. Chiharu Shida/Nami Matsuyama (Saishunkan) XD Team A Member 01. Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino (Unisys) 02. Yuki Kaneko/Koharu Yonemoto (Unisys/Hokuto Bank) 02. Takuro Hoki/Sayaka Hirota (Tonami/Saishunkan) 03. Yugo Kobayashi/Misaki Matsutomo (Tonami/Unisys) Team B Member To be determined later National Head Coach : Park Joo Bong 2018 National A Team Coach • Kei Nakashima • Rionny Mainaky • Choi Sangbeom • Yosuke Nakanishi • Jeremy Gan (new) 2018 National B Team Coach • Karel Mainaky • Keita Masuda • Eriko Hirose • Kenichi Hayakawa Source: https://www.badminton.or.jp/national/member.html https://www.badminton.or.jp/national/2018/2018_national_member.pdf
No, Ayaka Takahashi still partnering with Misaki Matsutomo. I compile the list based on each category at above post for easier to digest. I think that compilation would be better than a whole Team A Men's Players and Team A Women's Players list. Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino is the only XD from Team A. Yugo Kobayashi/Chiharu Shida, the All Japan Championships runner-up is a XD pair from Team A/Team B combination. The rest of XD pairs will be determined later as the new coach coming soon.
This is what Kurato said above haha: 1. (1) Takahashi/Matsutomo: 11660 2. (3) Fukushima/Hirota: 11015 3. (2) Yonemoto/Tanaka: 9994.40 4. (4) Fukuman/Yonao: 8180 5. (5) Takahashi/Higashino: 7750 + Nagahara/Matsumoto
Don't you think the latest Domestic Rank for WD have something new : Rank 5th, 7th, 10th, 15th, 16th, and so on... have orange color block ? I think there's a meaning which I don't know for the moment. Maybe it's their ranking points for last 2 years which is remain on top. Or in other word, those pairs with orange block ranking are non active pair. I don't think the same Ayaka Takahashi would playing WD with two different partners (Misaki Matsutomo and Arisa Higashino). And it's almost impossible with two combination pairs made from 3 double players and those 2 WD pairs are Team A member. The list on the website is only mentioning the team A member without each category description.
I am not sure how the XD are going to finally configure, and I have probably mistakenly listed Takahashi/Higashino as a WD Team A pair. But they do play together, and they rank fairly highly as a pair in the domestic WD rankings (https://www.badminton.or.jp/ranking/2017/ranking20171203wd.pdf). Incidentally, the meaning of the orange blocks is not explained (or, at least, not in an obvious place). However, looking at the players listed in the blocks, it is obvious that players who form part of two different pairs are marked orange from the second time they appear on the list. For example, Takahashi Ayaka (Rank 1) is marked orange the second time she appears with Higashino (Rank 5). Fukushima (Rank 2) is marked orange the second time she appears with Shida. Hirota (Rank 2, along with Fukushima) is marked orange the second time she appears with Ono, etc, etc. However, I am not sure at this stage why four pairs all rank in at number 5. I will need to re-check the domestic ranking criteria for doubles. And yes, rankings generally are based on a two-year period, with points earned in the last 52 weeks carrying 100% of their weight, and points in weeks 53~104, carrying 50%. But that does not explain why so many pairs rank in together. Back to the first point, you never know, ...with TakaMatsu performing below par, pairings may become more flexible.
