is a retired Japanese

ice dancer Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...

and former

single skater Single skating is a discipline of figure skating in which male and female skaters compete individually. Men's singles and women's singles are governed by the International Skating Union (ISU). Figure skating is the oldest winter sport contested ...

. She and partner

Shingo Nishiyama is a Japanese ice dancer. He and current partner Azusa Tanaka are the Figure skating at the 2025 Asian Winter Games, 2025 Asian Winter Games bronze mealists and two-time Japan Figure Skating Championships, Japanese national silver medalists (202 ...

are the

2025 Asian Winter Games The 2025 Asian Winter Games ( zh, s=第九届亚洲冬季运动会, p=Dì jiǔ jiè yàzhōu dōngjì yùndònghuì), officially known as the 9th Asian Winter Games, and commonly known as Harbin 2025 (), were the ninth edition of the Asian Winte ...

bronze medalists and two-time Japanese national silver medalists ( 2023–24, 2024–25).

Early life and education

Tanaka was born on 29 October 2005 in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. She attends Kyoto Koka Girls' High School. Tanaka looks up to fellow Japanese skaters

Satoko Miyahara is a retired Japanese figure skater. She is the 2015 World silver medalist, the 2018 World bronze medalist, the 2016 Four Continents champion, a two-time Four Continents silver medalist (2014, 2015), a two-time Grand Prix Final silver medali ...

Kana Muramoto is a retired Japanese figure skater ( women's singles and ice dance). With her skating partner, Daisuke Takahashi, she is the 2022 Four Continents silver medalist, the 2022–23 Japanese national champion and the 2022 Denis Ten Memorial Chal ...

and

Yuna Shiraiwa is a former Japanese figure skater. She is the 2018 CS Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy, 2018 CS Asian Open silver medalist, the 2017 Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy, Asian Trophy silver medalist, and the 2018 Coupe du Printemps bronze medal ...

Career

Early years

Tanaka began skating in 2012 after being inspired by her older brother's classmate, who was a figure skater. She placed fourteenth at 2017–18 Japan Novice A Championships and seventh at 2018–19 Japan Novice A Championships.

Singles skating career

2019–20 season: Junior Grand Prix debut

Tanaka was assigned to make her

Junior Grand Prix The ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating (titled the ISU Junior Series in the 1997–98 season) is a series of international junior-level competitions organized by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the disciplines of men ...

debut at the 2019 JGP Lake Placid on the 2019–20 circuit. In her short program, she missed her combination due to a fall and doubled a planned triple Loop, placing her tenth with a score of 51.37 points. During the free skate, Tanaka downgraded four jumps, falling twice, and doubled a Lutz. Tanaka finished in fourteenth place overall. Appearing next at the 2019–20 Japan Junior Championships, Tanaka finished in tenth place.

2020–21 season

The 2020–21 Junior Grand Prix circuit was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. As a result, Tanaka did not have the opportunity to compete on the

again. At the 2020–21 Japan Junior Championships, Tanaka finished in fifteenth place after several mistakes in both programs.

2021–22 season

Tanaka competed at the 2021–22 Japan Junior Championships and placed fifth overall, making her highest placement in the event. She then competed at the senior level, finishing tenth in the short program with a clean skate despite a quarter call on her combination. Tanaka struggled in the free skate, coming nineteenth in the segment and dropping to eighteenth place overall. Tanaka was assigned to compete at the 2023 Egna Trophy in the junior category. She came third in the short program with a score of 51.35. In the free skate, she under-rotated the first three jumps and struggled on the spins, then finishing in fourth place behind Canada's Fiona Bombardier.

Ice dance with Nishiyama

2023–24 season

On 6 May 2023, Japanese ice dancer

announced that he and Tanaka would be forming a new ice dance partnership, and would be training at the Ice Academy of Montreal in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Tanaka/Nishiyama made their international competitive debut on the Challenger circuit at the

2023 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb The 2023 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb was held on December 6–9, 2023, in Sisak, Croatia. It was the ninth and final event of the 2023–24 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. ...

, coming ninth. They next competed at the 2023–24 Japan Championships, which proved to be a tight contest between them and two other senior teams. Tanaka/Nishiyama won the rhythm dance, finishing ahead of four-time national champions Komatsubara/ Koleto and the new team Yoshida/ Morita. However, they were third in the free dance, and finished second overall. The team said they were satisfied to have made it onto the podium, noting their rapid progress in the short time since partnering. With the close result at the national championships, the

Japan Skating Federation The Japan Skating Federation () is the sports governing body of Japan for figure skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in 1929. The current president (since 2019) is Akihisa Nagashima, a member of the House of Rep ...

opted to postpone assigning Japan's lone berth at the 2024 World Championships pending the results of all three teams at the 2024 Four Continents Championships. Traveling to

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

to compete, Tanaka/Nishiyama finished eleventh overall, third among the Japanese teams.

2024–25 season

Although initially assigned to compete at the

2024 CS Nebelhorn Trophy The 2024 CS Nebelhorn Trophy was held on September 19–21, 2024, in Oberstdorf, Germany. It was part of the 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in single skating, men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. En ...

in September, Tanaka/Nishiyama would withdraw from the event. Their first event of the season was the

2024 NHK Trophy The 2024 NHK Trophy was the fourth event of the 2024–25 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan, from November 8–10. Medals w ...

, where they finished tenth. In late December, Tanaka/Nishiyama won the silver medal at the 2024–25 Japan Championships behind Yoshida/ Morita. They were subsequently named to the Four Continents team. Going on to compete at the

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

, China, Tanaka/Nishiyama won the bronze medal. They subsequently finished the season by competing at the 2025 Four Continents Championships in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea, placing eleventh overall. Throughout the season, Tanaka struggled with a rib injury. In July 2025, Tanaka announced her retirement from competitive figure skating.

Programs

With Nishiyama

Women's singles

Competitive highlights

''JGP:

Ice dance with Nishiyama

Women's singles

Detailed results

Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.

With Nishiyama

References

External links

* *
Azusa Tanaka
at the

Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games The 2025 Asian Winter Games ( zh, s=第九届亚洲冬季运动会, p=Dì jiǔ jiè yàzhōu dōngjì yùndònghuì), officially known as the 9th Asian Winter Games, and commonly known as Harbin 2025 (), were the ninth edition of the Asian Winte ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Azusa 2005 births Living people Japanese female single skaters Japanese female ice dancers Figure skaters from Kyoto 21st-century Japanese sportswomen Figure skaters at the 2025 Asian Winter Games Medalists at the 2025 Asian Winter Games Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Asian Games medalists in figure skating