After the dust settled from last week’s 2026 Japan Swim, the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF) has released the respective men’s and women’s lists of swimmers set to represent the nation at this year’s Pan Pacific Championships.
First held in 1985, the Pan Pacs was founded as an alternative to the European Championships for those countries that could not swim in those championships. It is considered to be one of the premier swimming competitions outside of the Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships.
Highlighted on the men’s roster is 17-year-old prodigy Shin Ohashi, the teen who established new World Junior Records in both the 100m breast and 200m breast last week in Tokyo.
The World Junior Championshps multi-medalist crushed outings of 58.67 in the 100m and 2:06.59 in the 200m to rank #1 in both events as just a teen. He’s established himself as the one to beat against the likes of Australia and the United States at Pan Pacs.
18-year-old Kazushi Imafuku was another standout performer from last week’s Japan Swim, reaping gold in a new Japanese national record in the men’s 800m free.
His time of 7:47.81 ranks him 5th in the world at the moment.
Olympic silver medalist Tomoyuki Matsushita hit a new lifetime best of 4:06.93 in his signature men’s 400m IM to lead the world rankings, while three-time Olympian Rikako Ikee will seek to do damage across the women’s sprint free and fly events.
JPN Men’s Pan Pacs Roster
- Shuya Matsumoto
- Koshiro Sakai
- Katsuhiro Matsumoto
- Tatsuya Murasa
- Kazushi Imafuku
- Kaito Tabuchi
- Kazusa Kuroda
- Konosuke Yanagimoto
- Reo Miura
- Rika Matsuyama
- Hidekazu Takehara
- Kodai Nishiono
- Shin Ohashi
- Ippei Watanabe
- Yamato Fukasawa
- Shoon Mitsunuga
- Tomoyuki Matsushita
- Tomoru Honda
- Yumeki Kojima
- Asaki Nishikawa
JPN Women’s Pan Pacs Roster
- Rikako Ikee
- Nagisa Ikemoto
- Ruka Takezawa
- Ichika Kajimoto
- Ayu Mizoguchi
- Rio Suzuki
- Yui Fukuoka
- Miyua Namba
- Miri Sasaki
- Rio Shirai
- Satomi Suzuki
- Kotomi Kato
- Chiho Mizuguchi
- Misaki Okuzoho
- Shiho Matsumoto
- Mio Narita
- Waka Kobori
Does anyone know if Yamato Okadome will swim long course this summer?
He skipped media last night because he was “sick” so not sure we’ll get the chance to ask but I’d assume he will.
thanks for the reply! I hope he swims at a major meet but dunno where he could. I was looking at his swimcloud and he swam one LCM meet last year (pretty sure on vacation) and almost broke a minute. This Japan roster is already loaded but think he might be their 2nd fastest 100 breastroker.
Looks like they relaxed their tough standards slightly.
I really don’t get the point of the tougher time standards except for maaaybe limiting team size.
It’s not like athletes are **just** trying to make the team, it’s a stepping stone to competing internationally.
If they could swim faster they would, it’s not like anyone sees a faster QT and is like “I wouldn’t have tried, but now that QT is faster than the national record I’d better have a crack”
Oh we’ve had history of Aussie swimmers make the Olympics that are happy just to make the team and be proverbial tourists once they get to the major championships .. they don’t even make semis
Not many though that I recall. Plus some could be sickness. Or injury. I don’t think many really don’t try.
Yeah I thought almost no one had made the cut but they have a full size team