Sota Yamamoto

[surimi]

From a Deep Edge article about Sota's loss: 'I wanted to express my gratitude to her more, and even now, there are times when I can't stop thinking about her.' TBH, although I saw a photo from the skating class yesterday where Sota was smiling warmly at his little skaters, he looks sad, and understandably so, in the official group photos (halfway through the article).
I wish there was something we could do for him as his fans.

Also, regarding the mentions of skater expenses, I stumbled upon this post today:

I guess it's similar in Japan. JSF A-tier funding and MIXI sponsorship covers a part of the expenses, but it's still a lot, and that's only skating-related expenses. Hopefully Sota has all the support he needs these days.

ETA, for something more cheerful than the stuff above, here's a brief interview with some of the male skaters who appear in Kassouya, including Sota. I'm guessing it was taken before he permed his hair:

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

From a Deep Edge article about Sota's loss: 'I wanted to express my gratitude to her more, and even now, there are times when I can't stop thinking about her.' TBH, although I saw a photo from the skating class yesterday where Sota was smiling warmly at his little skaters, he looks sad, and understandably so, in the official group photos (halfway through the article).
I wish there was something we could do for him as his fans.

Also, regarding the mentions of skater expenses, I stumbled upon this post today:

I guess it's similar in Japan. JSF A-tier funding and MIXI sponsorship covers a part of the expenses, but it's still a lot, and that's only skating-related expenses. Hopefully Sota has all the support he needs these days.

ETA, for something more cheerful than the stuff above, here's a brief interview with some of the male skaters who appear in Kassouya, including Sota. I'm guessing it was taken before he permed his hair:

I believe that JSF covers all, or nearly all these expenses at his level, but I'm afraid that he's not earning a lot from his sponsor, particularly given the cost of living in Japan, I assume (maybe wrongly) that he receives the same salary as other graduate new recruits in the company, and these have reportedly not augmented along with living costs during the last decades.

 

[rRainbow]

ETA, for something more cheerful than the stuff above, here's a brief interview with some of the male skaters who appear in Kassouya, including Sota. I'm guessing it was taken before he permed his hair:

Thanks @surimi, for the video of the interview featuring Kosho, Kazuki, Sota, and Yuto during their rehearsal for Kassouya. I translated Sota's and Kazuki's parts.
@KiraraChin, please cross-post it to Kazuki's thread. Sorry, I'm too lazy.

Sota: Well, the timing for choreographing the competition program completely overlapped last year, so I couldn't participate. I'm really happy they invited me again this year. Honestly, I'm having a great time, right from the rehearsals. Last year, I joined right after the Four Continents, and I was barely keeping up. This time, I want to buckle down during rehearsals and deliver a great performance.

Kosho: That's about it. Well then, thank you very much.

Kazuki: Hey, hey, hey, hey! Excuse me, but I'm the one wrapping up the interview. Well, um, this is my third time—first, second, and now third—and honestly, this year, I wasn't sure I could make it at first. But no matter what, I really wanted to be here. I feel like I've grown year after year. When I perform at Kassouya, I feel confident expressing myself. I'll give it my all. Please look forward to it.

 

[KiraraChin]

Thank you so much @rRainbow!
I don't know if it's me, but despite the smile I feel like Sota seems a bit down in this video, understandably so. He's so strong, though, that really shines through.

As for his finances, it's hard to speculate, we can only hope that between JSF + MIXI + colantotte + shows + merch he has enough to fund his training, and if he needs any help with living expenses, hopefully his grandparents and other relatives would be able to help. Still, death is usually not a cheap matter and oftentimes the inheritance process is not particularly fast so it's natural for us, fans, to worry. I wish there was a more direct way for fans to help him out, it would be nice if perhaps MIXI could do a support campaign

 

[surimi]

Sota slipping in a little joke in his Colantotte message video*:

* initially introducing himself as Kazuki, which even non-Japanese speakers can clearly hear ^ ^ I think the boys recorded their messages shortly after each other, hence Sota's joke
It's great to see him smile and joke genuinely, though I'm still sad for what he's going through. Patiently waiting for his new funding platform...

And the Quadruple Axel magazine, with a release planned for March 31, will feature a joint special interview of Sota and Rino Matsuike. Love them both, so I'm considering buying the e-version.

ETA, also this wee bit of Sota footage in this Kassouya promo video:

 

[surimi]

Sota and Kanako Murakami were the last team to announce their guardian deity theme for Kassouya, and it's vermilion bird:

Kassouya starts in just two days, and I'll hope for lots of reports and photos :]

 

[synesthesia]

I love this hypnotic program for Sota – it brings out a completely different side of him that I’ve never seen before :

 

[KiraraChin]

I love this hypnotic program for Sota – it brings out a completely different side of him that I’ve never seen before :

Agree, it suits him so well! He should keep it as an EX for next season

 

[surimi]

Here's some more Kassouya footage of Sota:
- Sota jumping a 4T:


- and Sota closeup:


I hope he's been having fun! :]

 

[surimi]

Sota has been assigned to Dreams on Ice in Yokohama (June 26-28)!

アイスクリスタル

アイスクリスタル。チケット先行や会員限定コンテンツなど様々な特典をお楽しみいただけます。

fan.pia.jp

More Sota dancing and jumping at Kassoyua ^ ^ He's performing very nicely, so it's good that he has more shows scheduled before the end of the season!


Some cool dance moves:

 

[KiraraChin]

Amazing Sota fan art:

 

[synesthesia]

It's wonderful to see Sota smile so brightly and to hear that he had a joyful time :

Kassouya ~Volume 2~​

​

Thank you so much!​

​

It’s been two years since I last appeared in Kassouya, and I had a truly wonderful and joyful time from rehearsals through to the final performance.​

​

I’m so happy to have been able to see this production through to the very end as a member of the cast.​

​

Thank you to everyone who came to the venue, and to everyone who watched via social media.​

​

I look forward to seeing you all again soon!​

Amazing Sota fan art:

Here is another extremely cool fan art:

 

[surimi]

Sota did WC commentary for Fuji TV along with Kazuki, Yuna Aoki and Wakaba Higuchi:

I'd love to know what they were saying!

And a promotional video for the Quadruple Axel magazine, soon to be on sale, where Sota and Rino have a joint interview!


Machine translation:
"Quadruple Axel 2026 Season Climax"
Releasing on March 31st!!
This is a video message from #SotaYamamoto! (Comments are from the time of the interview) In the discussion with #RinoMatsuike, he shared deep insights on skating techniques, his medal win at the Four Continents, and his thoughts on continuing his career!

Once more, I'm happy he's continuing, despite the hardships of this season...

 

[KiraraChin]

Sota's Twitter update - outfit matching with Kazuki!

 

[surimi]

Sota and Kazuki commentary action - according to this post, they're discussing Ilia's performance:

Sota seems to be totally immersed in the experience I saw a fan post saying that 'The amount of info he has on the men's category is impressive as expected'. I'd love to hear that! I also hear he received a lot of praise for his commentary, with fans speculating that he's honed his talent over the years through his Unlim talkshows
And here's the 4 of them:

 

[KiraraChin]

Congrats to Sota who made it to the Special Reinforcement funding group for the 2026-27 season
That 4CC medal was really so important, what an amazing achievement after such a troubled first part of the season.
It's also a relief for us, fans, who were worried about his finances after his family loss

 

[surimi]

Not going to lie, I'm massively relieved. I haven't been very active in the FS fandom for the last month or so, and the dread that Sota might retire was a major factor as for weeks, there was nothing new about Sota on Twitter but Kassouya photos and videos. Thank heaven he now has both Special funding and his sponsor!
He has also received an Outstanding Athlete award:

It's good to see him again after a while! It's from this video, time stamp for Sota's award is 19.05.

I hope Sota can now travel overseas for choreo if he decides he needs it.
I hope life's treating Sota kindly otherwise. I wonder when we'll read about him next - hopefully it will be before his June show

 

[formersk8ter]

I love this hypnotic program for Sota – it brings out a completely different side of him that I’ve never seen before :

Yes! Would love to see Sota incorporate this into a competitive program.

 

[KiraraChin]

Sota has joined F-Ske, which is a paid subscription platform with figure skaters such as KanaDai, Kazuki and Kosho Oshima. Subscribers get exclusive content, lives, videos etc is a really good resource for fans and hopefully it'll help Sota's financial security too

 

[surimi]

I'm so happy about both a new platform for Sota, and his return to social media Here's Sota's post about F-ske:

Machine translation:
I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be participating in F-scale this time!I hope to share glimpses of my daily life here with you all.Looking forward to your kind support from here on out!

I'm tentatively hopeful that everyone can join The Japanese fans are joining fast.
And here's Sota's first video:


He also posted he's going to Aimyon's (his favorite musician) live concert - and once more, she responded to Sota's post. He must have been thrilled!
A lot of good Sota news in the last few days, hooray I'll need to save the Onsen club meeting for another post due to the link limit.