Women's ice hockey in Japan
editThe first women's ice hockey team in Japan, Isetan (Japanese: 伊勢丹), was founded by Etsuko Iwamoto in Tokyo in 1973.[1] By 1978, an unofficial women's ice hockey national championship had been independently created by a small group of women’s teams from the Tokyo Metropolis and Hokkaido. In 1982, the Japan Ice Hockey Federation sanctioned the tournament for the first time and it has been played as the official All-Japan Women’s Ice Hockey Championship ever since.[2]
For the following three decades, the All-Japan Championship was the only top level women’s ice hockey tournament in Japan. In practice, this meant teams played just three or four games of record during the three day tournament each season and generally played less than ten games in total, including friendlies organized between the teams or with teams outside of Japan.[3][4] Despite the small number of competitive games, teams conducted three to five practices per week and the caliber of play in Japan remained high, as reflected by the success of the national ice hockey team, which has never ranked lower than eleventh on the IIHF World Ranking and has always sported a substantial majority of players from Japanese women’s teams.
corporate sports[7]
league[8]
- ^ "伊勢丹のテレビ情報 | 78歳で現役 アイスホッケー選手の情熱と挑戦 | モーニングバード！". TVでた蔵 (in Japanese). 2015-01-13. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Hunter, Andria (1998). "Women's Hockey in Japan". Women's Hockey Web. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Hersh, Philip (1998-02-02). "Japan Getting (Stick) Handle on Women's Hockey". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "T-Birds welcome Japan's Seibu Princess Rabbits to Vancouver". University of British Columbia Athletics. 2009-11-18. Retrieved 2021-04-19.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kato, Jiro (2009-03-11). "女子日本一決定戦開幕". ホッケーを愛する (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-04-17.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "女子チーム". Girls on Ice. 2020-08-14. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "バレーボール女子・トヨタ車体の初タイトルに思う 記者レポート". Nikkan Sports (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-04-17.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "About the Smile League". Plenty of Nothing. Retrieved 2021-04-12.