Darts in Japan Part 2

Check out Darts in Japan Part 1 if you haven't already.

In this article, I will be investigating the question: How do darts in Japan influence darts in other parts of the world? How do darts outside of Japan influence Japanese darts?

First, you may have seen Japanese pro player Morihiro Hashimoto make a splash in the PDC World Championship earlier this year, with an upset over Matt Padget and showed a valiant display of skill losing to the number 3 ranked player, Gary Anderson.

Hashimoto became a crowd favorite during his time at Alexandra Palace.

Although Japan is a soft-tip country, Japanese players like Hashimoto are beginning to catch on to steel-tip, and with time and practice, expect more top-Japanese pros enter international competitions, like the PDC.

In addition, PDC players like Phil Taylor, occasionally travel to Japan to participate in soft-tip tournaments, like the 2008 MJ Tournament, shown below:

In addition to international competition, Japanese dart manufacturers have begun to sponsor pro players overseas. Japan's L-Style is now the sponsor and preferred choice of many American pros, like Scotty Burnett, Darin Young, Bill Davis, and John Kuczynski.

The goal of VegaDarts.com is to bring many quality brands from Japan to the rest of the world. As there is more and more interaction between Japan and other dart communities, Japan displays increasing innovation and contribution to the sport.