Yuzuru Hanyu won his fifth Japanese national figure skating title, tying the beloved Daisuke Takahashi in the record books and moving closer to a March showdown with Nathan Chen at the world championships.
Hanyu, the two-time Olympic champion, landed six quadruple jumps between two programs to tally 319.36 points and prevail by a whopping 34.55 over Olympic silver medalist Shoma Uno. Yuma Kagiyama was third, likely rounding out the world team.
Hanyu skated two clean programs with all positive grades of execution on jumping passes for the first time since the December 2015 Grand Prix Final — when he was at the peak of his dominance, breaking world records in back-to-back competitions.