Shoma Uno won his sixth national title, tying Yuzuru Hanyu’s career total for the most by a Japanese men’s singles figure skater in the last 50 years.
Uno, the two-time reigning world champion, totaled 298.04 points with six quadruple jumps between two programs in Nagano this week.
He prevailed by 5.94 over Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama. Sota Yamamoto, the 2022 Grand Prix Final silver medalist, was third.
All three men are likely headed to March’s world championships, where American Ilia Malinin may be the favorite after winning the Grand Prix Final earlier this month.
Uno earned four consecutive national titles from 2016-19 (Hanyu missed three of those), then won again the last two years. Either Hanyu, who retired after the 2022 Olympics, or Uno won every national title dating to 2012.
Takeshi Honda also won six national titles from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s.
Nobuo Satō holds the men’s record of 10 Japanese titles — consecutive in the 1950s and ’60s — before coaching some of Japan’s top skaters.
