The 2012 Japan Yo-yo League officially started last weekend with the East Japan A Block Contest in Tokyo!

EJ has traditionally been a very strong regional contest, with the main Japanese competitors taking part. This year the contest was divided into two blocks, A and B. Block B will be held in Ichikawa City, in February.

In the A Block, Yoyojam’s prodigy and 5A World Champion Takeshi Matsuura surprised onlookers by winning the 1A division, ahead of YoyoRecreation’s Takahiro Iizuka, in 3rd, and Kento Noda, in 2nd. Is Takeshi Matsuura, who has won Japan Nationals in both 3A and 5A before, now aiming for the 1A title as well? Also worth noting is that 1A was the only division Takeshi competed in at EJ-A.

The winners in the other divisions were veteran Shuhei Kanai in 2A, Ken Takabayashi in 3A, Youhei Kagawa in 4A and Sora Ishikawa in 5A. Ishikawa was also the winner of the 44CLASH KIKSTYO Battle Tournament last month, and should be a contender for the Japanese title. 5A runner-up was Duncan Crew’s Shingo “Terry” Terada, who is still competing after more than 10 years in the scene!

The league continues next year with more regional contests throughout the country and finally the national contest:

• December 4th, 2011 – East Japan A Block Contest (EJ-A), Tokyo
• January 28th, 2012 – Central Japan Contest (CJ), Iwakura City
• February 4th, 2012 – East Japan B Block Contest (EJ-B), Ichiwaka City
• February 25th, 2012 – North Japan Contest (NJ), Sapporo
• March 11th, 2012 – South Japan Contest (SJ), Kasuya District
• April 21st, 2012 – West Japan Contest (WJ), Osaka
• June 30th, 2012 – Japan National Yo-yo Contest, Ichikawa City