Riku Miura & Ryuichi Kihara

[synesthesia]

I put my historical rivalry dislike for the L.A. Dodgers aside (I'm a S.F. Giants fan) to watch this very nicely executed pitch! Nice seeing Dave Roberts (half-Japanese and former S.F. Giant as well), the Dodgers' manager catching that first pitch.

They also took photos with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Rōki Sasaki :

 

[synesthesia]

Apparently, the Kinoshita Group is planning to build two new Olympic-sized ice rinks in Mie Prefecture to house Riku's and Ryuichi's “Rikuryu Academy” :

“りくりゅうアカデミー”は「五輪サイズのリンク２面に宿泊施設も」三重県に土地を確保…ペア大国へ、木下社長の野望とは？：時事ドットコム

大阪・なみはやドームの観客席はガラガラだった。２００９年冬、フィギュアスケートの全日本選手権でペアとアイスダンスが行われていた。木下グループの木下直哉社長はその光景を見て、日本スケート連盟から頼まれたカップル種目の支援を決めた。

www.jiji.com

Machine translation of the non-paywalled part:

“Rikuryu Academy” Secures Land in Mie Prefecture for “Two Olympic-Sized Rinks and Accommodations”… What Is President Kinoshita’s Ambition for a Powerhouse in Pairs Figure Skating?​

June 12, 2026​

​

　The stands at Namihaya Dome in Osaka were nearly empty. It was the winter of 2009, and the pairs and ice dance events of the All-Japan Figure Skating Championships were taking place. Upon seeing this scene, Naoya Kinoshita, President of the Kinoshita Group, decided to support the pairs and ice dance events, as requested by the Japan Skating Federation.​

​

At the time, singles skaters like Mao Asada and Daisuke Takahashi were dazzling the crowds and enjoying immense popularity. The pairs and ice dance events, by contrast, were on the sidelines. The contrast was stark. “There were simply no spectators. Even the front rows were empty, with no one sitting next to anyone. Seeing such a stark difference [from the singles events], I decided to support them.”​

​

President Kinoshita is a contrarian. This mindset extends to his business as well. The Kinoshita Group is involved in construction, nursing care, childcare, and healthcare. “We don’t chase trends; we focus on things that might become valuable in the future. We don’t demand immediate results. We engage with people while doing work that requires human hands. That is our foundation.” It took more than 16 years for the figure skating sponsorship to bear fruit.​

​

For the first few years, he was stunned. “The global barrier was too high. They couldn’t even advance to the free skate, and their scores weren’t high enough. The level was completely different.” Even so, he never once considered stopping his support for the pairs event.​

​

At the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics, the pair “Rikuryu”—Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, who are under contract with the same organization—won the gold medal. They pulled off a dramatic comeback in the free skate, marking the first time a Japanese team has achieved this in the discipline. Watching the two, who had become the focus of national attention, I thought to myself, “This is how the times can change.”​

 

[cocteautwin]

Apparently, the Kinoshita Group is planning to build two new Olympic-sized ice rinks in Mie Prefecture to house Riku's and Ryuichi's “Rikuryu Academy”

Awesome news! I'm super excited about it.

Also, apparently RikuRyu are in Canada now to work on their programs for shows with Bruno at Kitchener-Waterloo SC. Reunited with some training mates.

 

[synesthesia]

Awesome news! I'm super excited about it.

Me too! I’m thoroughly impressed that the Kinoshita Group, together with Riku and Ryuichi, are wasting no time in setting about building a better infrastructure for the pairs discipline in Japan.

Also, apparently RikuRyu are in Canada now to work on their programs for shows with Bruno at Kitchener-Waterloo SC. Reunited with some training mates.

They posted a snippet of their new show choreo (and Meagan Duhamel commented that she is disappointed she didn't get to see Riku and Ryuichi when they visited the rink. ):

___________​

According to an annual survey conducted by Central Research Services, Inc. (中央調査社, or CRS for short), one of Japan’s oldest and most respected institutes for opinion polling and social research (founded in 1954), Riku and Ryuichi are currently Japan’s most popular figure skaters and second most popular athletes overall (behind baseball star Shohei Ohtani) among the general public:

https://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports26.pdf

Central Research Services, Inc., a specialist public opinion and market research organisation (Chairman: Katsuhiko Sakai), conducted a nationwide survey on ‘popular sports’ between 8 and 18 May. The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews with randomly selected men and women aged 20 and over across the country (1,201 respondents). An overview of the survey results is provided below; a similar survey has been conducted annually since 1993.​

​

(Key Survey Results)​

​

[...]​

​

Figure skating stole the show this winter. The Rikuryu pair also ranked highly in the favourite athletes list.​

In the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, ‘figure skating’ was the most memorable sport, ranking first with 47.7%.​

It also topped the list of sports people want to follow in the future with 43.4%, whilst the pair of Riku Miura​

and Ryuichi Kihara came second in the ‘favourite sports athletes’ ranking.​

​

[...]​

​

​

1. Favourite sports personality​

​

[...]​

​

The pair of Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, whose performances at the Winter Olympics are still fresh in people’s minds, took second place. They are particularly popular among female respondents. Figure skaters Mao Asada and Kaori Sakamoto also made the list.​

​

[...]​

​

​

​

(Mao Asada shares 7th place with Teruaki Satō (baseball), and Kaori shares 9th place with Daiki Ōnosato (sumo) and Kei Nishikori (tennis). There are no other figure skaters in the top 10!)




This kind of attention, of course, provides an ideal starting point for Rikuryu's plans to bring pairs skating into the spotlight and significantly develop the discipline.

 

[cocteautwin]

Oh, so nice from Riku to write this supportive message towards Jasmine and Kieran's senior GP debut.

 

[cocteautwin]

RikuRyu's new ex is Billie Eilish "Bad guy". Duh.

 

[DemTuppesSeine]

RikuRyu's new ex is Billie Eilish "Bad guy". Duh.

THIS I want to see

 

[donnay234]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cr6zVRzow9KFtkQuftqxl0UUfWHiFvKe/view?usp=drive_link

RikuRyu documentary. Turn on captions for google subtitles