This is according to an online poll by Japan’s national broadcasting station NHK to determine Japan’s top 100 sports moments. Link is here (Japanese).
1. Shizuka Arakawa wins the gold medal at the Torino Olympics by doing the “Ina Bauer” move. (1539 votes)
2. Waseda Jitsugyo High School defeats Komadai Tomakomai 4-3 for the National High School Baseball Championships in 2006. (1126 votes)
3. Naoko Takahashi wins Japan’s first women’s gold medal in athletics in the marathon at the Sydney Olympics. (1112 votes)
4. Kazuyoshi Funaki’s jump gives Japan the team gold medal in the Nagano Olympics ski jump competition. (770 votes)
5. Daisuke Takahashi wins the silver medal at the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships. (Japan’s highest medal in the men’s division to date.) (755 votes)
6. Shigeo Nagashima’s retirement game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Chunichi Dragons. (734 votes)
7. Saga Kita High School wins the National High School Baseball Championships with a comeback grand slam homerun over Koryo High School in 2007. (705 votes)
8. Japan defeats Cuba in the finals of the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006. (696 votes)
9. Miki Ando wins her first World Figure Skating Championship in 2007. (693 votes)
10. Yomiuri Giants player Sadaharu Oh hits his 756th homerun passed the MLB record mark for career homeruns in a game against the Yakult Swallows. (He ended his career with a total of 868). (599 votes)
If you want to read the full 100, feel free to click the link above. It’s in Japanese so if anyone who doesn’t read Japanese well wants me to check what number one of their memories came out at, please feel free to ask in the comments. I was a little surprised that no Sumo or Judo moments made the top 10.
The first non-Japanese event shows up at 24th with Tiger Woods’s first Masters win. The first Judo can be found at number 32. Ryoko Tani’s 7th World Judo Championships gold medal.
The first Sumo memory is 56th with Takanohana defeating Musashimaru and moving on to the finals of the Prime Minister’s Cup Tournament in 2001 despite having injured his knee the day before.
Any thoughts?