[2026] Notte Stellata 2026 + 15th Anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake

[yuzurujenn]

*machine translation, inaccuracies exist*

2026.03.18

Source: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20260317/k00/00m/050/081000c

(Pair Article)

 

The concept of "600 seconds" = Hitoshi Kurasawa

 

It had been about three and a half years since we last faced each other.

On the afternoon of March 10th, I found myself face-to-face with professional figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu (31). Ahead of the 15th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, I conducted an individual interview with him in Sendai.

 

Spoiler

The moment I saw Hanyu standing by the window, I was enveloped in a level of tension that made my body stiffen, as it was a rare opportunity after such a long time.

 

Hanyu is an athlete who responds sincerely and thoroughly to whatever he is asked. Because of that, interviewing him also comes with its challenges.

 

The interview time with Hanyu was about 10 minutes. I have constantly struggled with how to use that time and how to structure the flow of questions.

 

After returning from the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics, whenever I had the chance, I would write down questions and erase them, write them down again and erase them again… repeating the process. I was doing the same thing even on the Shinkansen heading to Sendai. If you asked whether there is a correct answer, I think there probably isn’t.

 

The last individual interview had been in August 2022, when he first opened his practice to the media after turning professional. At that time, the interview lasted 300 seconds. Within that limited time, I clearly remember both Hanyu and myself exchanging questions and answers in rapid succession.

 

Although the allotted time had increased compared to back then, the flow could still change depending on Hanyu’s responses. After running through many simulations in my mind, I sat down in front of him.

 

Despite having just finished his "notte stellata" performance (7th-9th) in his hometown of Miyagi, Hanyu showed no signs of fatigue and wore a calm expression.

 

“Whether it’s the earthquake or ‘3.11,’ even for me personally, both during my competitive years and now as a professional, honestly, the kind of feelings I want to convey and the core of it haven't changed at all.”

 

He spoke at length, in his own words, about the 15 years since the disaster and his thoughts toward the affected regions. It reaffirmed the “unchanging” sentiment at his core.

 

At the same time, I asked him about something that had been on my mind. Since turning professional, I had the impression that his way of perceiving the “pain” and “wounds” he carries within himself might have changed.

 

Hanyu responded, “Ah… that may have changed a bit, actually. That’s true.” He then continued:

 

“Up until now, I think I had kind of ignored them, or put a lid on them, feeling like my personal matters didn’t really matter, that I should just leave them behind. More than that, I believed the most important thing was to skate for someone else, to keep burning something like my own emotions and soul for others. I’ve been pushing forward with that image all along.”

 

“But…,” he continued.

 

“I’ve gradually come to feel, little by little as I’ve grown older, that it's possible to acknowledge things like, ‘I’ve been through something painful,’ or ‘I have these wounds,’ while also caring for them, and at the same time pushing forward with everything I’ve got.”

 

Because he has come to be able to “balance both,” his approach to notte stellata, which he had described as something he “carried entirely on his own” during its first year, has also changed.

 

Having covered the event on-site every year, I finally understood why the sense of “hope” seemed to have grown stronger with each passing year.

 

“That was very concise. How much thought did you put into preparing those questions?”

 

After finishing the last question for the shoot, Hanyu said that with a smile.

 

There were still things I wanted to ask. Things I wanted to explore further...

 

Even so, as I brought that one-of-a-kind “600 seconds” to a close, I also felt a sense of relief at hearing those words from the person I had interviewed.

 

[yuzurujenn]

*machine translation, inaccuracies exist*

 

2026.03.17

 

Source: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20260316/k00/00m/050/309000c

(Paid article)

 

Exclusive interview with Yuzuru Hanyu: Unchanging feelings 15 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake

 

　Yuzuru Hanyu (31), a professional figure skater from Sendai who won two consecutive Olympic gold medals in men's figure skating, gave an exclusive interview to the Mainichi Shimbun on the 15th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. “As for what I want to convey, the core of it hasn’t changed,” he said, reflecting on the affected regions. He also spoke about changes he has felt through his ice show Notte Stellata, now in its fourth year. He also discussed his future role and mentioned younger skaters who performed at the Milano–Cortina Winter Olympics: men’s skater Shun Sato (Aim Services / Meiji University) and women’s skater Mone Chiba (Kinoshita Group). Below is the full exchange. (Interview conducted March 10. Interviewer: Hitoshi Kurasawa)

 

Spoiler

“It’s okay to just say ‘do your best’”

 

— Thank you for your efforts with ‘Notte Stellata’ again this year.

 

◆ Thank you very much.

 

—You spoke on media day (the 7th) about your thoughts on the 15th anniversary of the disaster. Five years ago, at the 10-year mark, you released a message that included the words “Please do your best.” Now that another five years have passed and your position has changed, what message would you give now?

 

◆ That’s difficult… yeah. But it hasn’t changed, basically. Whether it’s the disaster, or “3.11,” regardless of whether I was a competitive athlete or now a professional, honestly, the kind of feeling I want to convey, and what lies at its core, hasn’t changed at all. So I don’t really think of myself as giving something through my performances, or delivering something like “this is how it is”… Rather, when people watch my skating, or when they see or hear my words, if their hearts are moved even just a little in that moment, I think that’s enough. That’s the kind of belief I hold. So… what would it be? Maybe it’s okay for it to remain simply, “Do your best.”

 

—Five years ago, it was also memorable that you ended with “I will do my best too.”

 

◆ I’m doing my best too (laughs). To the me from five years ago, I’m doing my best too!

I don’t think my feelings have really changed all that much.

 

"I realized that it's possible to balance both"

 

—Not only in “Notte Stellata,” but also in “ICE STORY,” which you produce after turning professional, themes like pain and wounds have been present. Has your own sense of loss or emptiness changed over time?

 

◆ Ah… that might have changed a bit, actually. Before, I guess I left those things alone, or put a lid on them, and that my own personal matters didn’t really matter. I thought I'd just leave them behind. More than that, I believed the most important thing was skating for someone else, and continuing to burn something like the flame of my emotions and my soul for someone else. So I kept pushing forward with that image. But now, little by little, as I've grown up, I've come to realize that acknowledging the painful things I've been through, the wounds I have, and caring for them while still charging ahead, can coexist.

 

—Is that something that’s come with doing more performances?

 

◆ Also through actually writing my own stories and creating my own choreography. I think that’s been a big part of it.

 

—With “Notte Stellata,” as you’ve gone through more performances since the first year, it feels like the brighter element of hope has been growing stronger year by year. Is that something you’ve been consciously shaping?

 

◆ I was conscious of it in the second and third years. But this year, my sense of trust in my teammates has become really strong. The skaters who perform, and the special guests as well, have all been feeling more and more strongly about the disaster with each passing year, and I’ve come to feel that I don’t have to carry everything on my own anymore. That’s been a big part of it, I think. 

 

In the first year, I was really carrying “Notte Stellata” all by myself, completely taking it on, and with “3.11” too, I felt like I had to bear it all myself and convey something, so I approached it with a very strong sense of responsibility. Even now, I still carry that with me, but this time especially, I really felt that I have teammates who can share that burden with me.

 

“Continuing to stay connected”

 

—Even during your competitive years, you carried the weight of disaster-stricken areas on your shoulders. Now that you’re a professional, have you developed your own way of engaging with them?

 

◆Honestly… I don’t really know. Right now, I feel like this is the answer I have for myself, and of course I’m still searching. But as the phrase “it hasn’t really changed” suggests, I’ve basically continued with the same sense all along. Still, you never know what might happen in life. So I think I’ll keep searching, depending on the moment, for what form support should take, how to convey my feelings, and what kind of opportunities or connections can be created.

 

—Including the areas affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake (2024), you’ve been exploring ways to support various disasters, and it feels like your scope as a professional has definitely expanded, hasn’t it?

 

◆ Yeah, that’s true. But speaking from my own perspective, whether it’s the Noto earthquake, the West Japan floods in 2018, or the forest fires in Ofunato in 2025, when I look at them, it really all comes back to the major disaster of “3.11.” And because of that, there’s no doubt that what was learned from it, and what has been passed on since, has helped reduce damage.

 

And if you trace it back even further, there were things like the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and in Miyagi Prefecture, earthquakes off the Miyagi coast, and the Chile tsunami, among others. Honestly, they’re from generations I don’t really know, and some even go back to the Meiji era, so I don’t fully understand them. But still, because those things happened, you get things like disaster-prevention ordinances in a city like Sendai. I think all of that is connected.

 

So yes, my scope has definitely expanded, and I’ve started thinking not just about earthquakes but also heavy rain and all kinds of disasters. But at the same time, it all feels connected. From “3.11,” it’s like everything has continued to connect, thinking about actions to protect lives, actions to protect different things, and ways of cherishing what matters. It feels like all of us have been thinking about these things together and continuing to carry them forward.

 

“I’ll definitely get better”

 

—In your new program “Happy End,” there were contemporary dance elements, and it seemed like you were exploring new possibilities as a performer.

 

◆ It’s not like I want to become a dancer. So when I dance on ice, of course I do end up being influenced quite a bit by dance movements. But then, for example in “Happy End,” I mix in spins, or that sense of speed you can only get from skating, the way you use your body, the speed of rotation, even how the air moves, those are probably things you can only really do on ice. And I think what matters more is expressing what I want to express while incorporating all of that. It’s not about breaking new ground in figure skating or being avant-garde. It’s not just about calling it contemporary, but about asking, “What do I want to express?” I think the most important thing is, “When I tried to express that through figure skating, this is the form it took.”

 

To do that, I feel like I’ve learned a lot of the necessary techniques, including during this maintenance period (since last summer). And I think there are still a lot of things I haven’t brought out yet. There’s still so much I need to learn, and so much I need to keep refining. So I want to keep using figure skating to convey my feelings, what I want to express, and the wishes and prayers I hope will reach people.

 

—You mentioned “techniques without a basis” and “practice without a basis” as insights from your maintenance period. During that time, did you also gain a sense of confidence or conviction in what you’ve been doing?

 

◆Ah, yes, definitely. I feel like I’m kind of in the middle of taking a long detour right now. In the end, I’m building up my knowledge from a zero base, bit by bit, while exploring things like, “this might work in figure skating,” or, for example, “maybe this kind of technique from dance is actually used here in skating too,” and as I try things out, I sometimes realize, “oh, I was already doing this.” That kind of thing does happen.

 

But the problem is that I’ve been continuing like that, with things like “I'm doing this,” or “I was able to do that,” or “this is one of my characteristics,” without any real basis, and without being under my control. I believe that if I can control my own characteristics and strengths, or conversely, my weaknesses and flaws, I can definitely do things better and really command them. I think it would be great if I could continue to value that and pursue it further.

 

To the two juniors who competed at the Olympics

 

—Junior skaters from Sendai who have long admired you and the way you continue to push yourself have now made it to the Olympics. Sato won bronze, and Chiba placed fourth. How did you feel seeing juniors follow in your footsteps and succeed at the Olympics, a stage you once competed on yourself?

 

◆ Well, I’m really happy they’ve been working hard, or rather, it’s like a parent’s feeling (laughs). Especially with these two, I’ve known them since they were very little. I’ve seen them working hard all this time, and also when they were still wobbly on the ice. While I’m reminded again of how much time has passed, I also find myself feeling somewhat deeply moved…

 

But Shun being Shun, I think he probably experienced both moments of joy and moments of being hit with the realization, “this is the extent of my ability right now.” Watching the team event, the free skate, and his interviews, that’s what I felt.

 

As for Mone as well, I think she must have felt both the frustration of thinking, “this is my level,” and the frustration of not being able to win, of wanting a medal but not quite being able to take it even though it was right there. I think both of them have now gained new “elements/experiences” that will help them grow even further. After that, it’s up to them whether they can use those as fuel or not. Whether they can do it is entirely up to them. I also want to keep watching over them for a long time. I’m honestly not the type to instruct others or to say things like, “just watch my back,” or anything like that…

 

—The juniors are all watching your back.

 

◆ If they choose to watch, I’m fine with that (laughs). If they have time to be thinking about something like that (that everyone is watching my back), I just think they should focus on getting better. So I’ll keep working on improving myself as well. But their growth is their own, and I want to spend my time looking forward to it and enjoying it.

 

 

 

Yuzuru Hanyu

Born in Sendai. He achieved back-to-back Olympic victories at the 2014 Sochi and 2018 PyeongChang Games, the first time in 66 years this was accomplished in men’s figure skating. He was also the first Japanese athlete to win consecutive Olympic titles in an individual event at the Winter Olympics, earning him the People’s Honor Award.

 

In 2020, he won the Four Continents Championships for the first time, becoming the first men’s skater to complete the “Super Slam,” winning all major international titles: the Olympics, World Championships, Grand Prix Final, World Junior Championships, and Junior Grand Prix Final.

 

In 2016, he became the first in the world to successfully land a quadruple loop. At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where he placed fourth, he attempted the first quadruple Axel in Olympic history. He turned professional in the summer of 2022 and has since performed in numerous ice shows, including the first-ever solo performance at Tokyo Dome in skating history.