2025 JAPAN SWIM
- Thursday, March 20th – Sunday, March 23rd
- Tokyo Aquatics Centre
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
The 2025 Japan Swim is nearly upon us with the four-day competition kicking off Thursday, March 20th and spanning through Sunday, March 23rd.
The meet represents the sole qualifying opportunity for Japanese swimmers to etch their names onto the nation’s roster for the 2025 World Aquatics Swimming World Championships in Singapore this July. Athletes will also be vying for the opportunity to represent Japan at this year’s World University Games and World Junior Championships.
As a deviation from past selection criteria with stiff performance requirements, the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF) is utilizing the World Aquatics ‘A’ cuts as its minimum time standards.
Column ‘A’ is the time standard for both men and women.
Key entries include 3-time Olympian Rikako Ikee set to race the women’s 50m/100m free and 50m/100m fly while Japan’s sole 2024 Olympic medalist Tomoyuki Matsushita is entered in the men’s 200m/400m IM and 200m free.
Veteran Daiya Seto is slated to compete in the men’s 200m/400m IM and 200m fly while 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Tomoru Honda is expected to race the 400m IM.
Of note, we reported how 23-year-old Honda is still debating about competing at this year’s World Championships but has eyes on the LA 2028 Olympic Games.
We’ll keep an eye on emerging stars Mizuki Hirai, Tatsuya Murasa and the breaststroke stable which includes former World Record holder Ippei Watanabe, Yu Hanaguruma, Yamato Fukasawa and more.
I’m glad that they’re changing things up from the disastrous last Olympic cycle by slightly lowering the qualifying standards a bit. Outside of maybe the women’s 100 Back I can see Japan qualifying two in each event.
But given how the article phrased getting under the A standard is the bare minimum, I have a feeling they’re still only gonna take swimmers who were able to go under or close to the top 8 times from Paris just cuz of various reasons.