The duo, who celebrated their first anniversary in May, have a new determination: to win the All Japan Championships in the 2024-25 season. The figure skating and ice dancing duo, Azusa Tanaka (18) and Mako Nishiyama (22) of Oriental Bio, are competing in a challenging new program to make this their breakthrough season.

Giving back through skating

This spring, Azushin embarked on a new chapter. Nishiyama retired from the Waseda University skating club, and Tanaka graduated from high school and went on to college.

Nishiyama is of the generation that will graduate from university and enter the workforce when she retires from the team. Some of her classmates from the skating team at university and her training buddies in Japan have retired from competitive skating by getting a job or going on to graduate school. Nishiyama herself took a leave of absence from university to focus on skating in Montreal, Canada, but she said she has reconsidered the meaning of continuing to compete.

“I thought a lot about what I should do with my career going forward. I should be in a position where I should use my first paycheck to buy something for my parents or give something back to them. To be honest, I wondered what to do…”

After much thought, I came to the conclusion that…