The Japan Ice Hockey League (JIHL) (日本アイスホッケーリーグ) was an annual

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

league that began in 1966 and ended in 2004 when it was replaced by

Asia League Ice Hockey Asia League Ice Hockey ( ja, アジアリーグアイスホッケー; ko, 아시아리그 아이스하키) or ALIH (AL) is an association which operates a professional ice hockey league based in East Asia, with teams from Japan, South Korea, and ...

. Only Japanese teams competed in the JIHL. Baseball and football have been the dominant Japanese sports for decades, but ice hockey in Japan started in the 1920s. Teams have been competing in the All Japan Championships since 1930, making the tournament one of the oldest sporting competitions in the country. Professional hockey arrived in 1966 with the Japan Ice Hockey League. Originally a five-team league, the JIHL expanded to six teams in 1974 and stayed that way until tough economic times led to budget cutbacks and eventually the demise of the league in 2004. Organizers decided the sport could only prosper in Asia if teams in Japan, China and South Korea formed a multinational league, and in 2004 the 38-year-old JIHL was abandoned in favor of

Japan Ice Hockey League champions

Fictional player

Fictional ice hockey player Taro Tsujimoto was said to have come from the "Tokyo Katanas" of the JIHL; neither the player nor the team existed, but were instead the creation of George Imlach. Imlach, as general manager of the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, alon ...

, legally drafted Tsujimoto with the 183rd pick in the 1974 NHL Entry Draft, in protest of the league's secrecy policies. When Imlach revealed Tsujimoto was not a real person, the pick was subsequently invalidated.

References

* Greenaway, Chris
tokyoessentials.com

External links

Japan Ice Hockey Federation
{{Japan Ice Hockey League seasons Ice hockey competitions in Japan Defunct ice hockey leagues in Asia Defunct sports leagues in Japan

Japan Ice Hockey League champions

Fictional player

See also

References

External links