Where did Japan go?

[OtaMota]

In 2010, Japan was one of the most represented nation in the top 100 for 3x3 average. They had the second highest number of competitors only followed by the US. They were notable for a lot of WR/AsRs back in the day. Now a days, no Japanese person is even in the top 200 in the world for 3x3, let alone top 100. What happened to make Japan, once a powerhouse in speedcubing, not really relevant in the present day?

Also, what happened to Thailand, they had a bunch of good cubers as well, but they seem to have fallen out. They have an entry for WR100 by 3x3 Single (as recent as 2024 which I believe was in or around WR10 at the time) but overall, they seem to be a bit weaker.

 

[Puzzle Maniac]

 

[acrystal]

View attachment 50232

guess the japanese empire is back

 

[Martyt7777]

guess the japanese empire is back

This is the strongest I’ve felt of wanting the reaction (as a half-Chinese)

 

[pi=3.14]

lol

 

[pi=3.14]

lol

View attachment 50336

The 3x3 single is WR198, 3x3 average is WR211, and the 2x2 average is WR46. There was also a WR180 Pyra single

 

[1973486]

One thing to note about Thailand is their competitions per year fell off massively after WC2011. Whether that reduced their interest in cubing, or the other way around, I'm not sure.

 

[OtaMota]

One thing to note about Thailand is their competitions per year fell off massively after WC2011. Whether that reduced their interest in cubing, or the other way around, I'm not sure.

That’s really interesting when you would expect the opposite.

 

[qwr]

View attachment 50232

You included the entire Korean peninsula and a good chunk of China and Russia too

Anyway to answer the question: maybe they found something better to do.

 

[bldcuber314]

lol

View attachment 50336

That 2x2 single was so overdue how did it stay at 0.99 that long

 

[abunickabhi]

Japan championship going on now

But no attention or world class solves there sadly yo

 

[Tabe]

I was just talking to a parent today at our local Spokane, WA competition. His family had visited Japan where his son competed in a competition. He was saying the entire country has 2 delegates (not quite) and he was saying how lucky he felt knowing that they had a local community back home with multiple delegates that they know and interact with frequently.

This inspired me to look at Japan on the WCA. Japan has 6 delegates total, 3 of whom are juniors. Their regional delegate hasn't competed in well over a year and has numerous that he hasn't competed in in 7+ years. 6 delegates for a country with a population of 122 million. By contrast, the state of Washington, which has a population of 8 million, has 7 full delegates + 2 juniors. And another junior and a trainee that technically live in Idaho but delegate in Washington all the time.

Would be interesting to know if anyone has any insight as to why cubing didn't continue to grow there.