It was reported that Tomoka Nishiyama, a women’s professional shogi player, became the first woman in history to earn full professional status under a special exception rule — and the news sparked debate in a thread on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. Normally, the only paths to turning pro are winning the apprentice 3-dan league or passing the professional qualifying exam; this marks the first time anyone has been promoted via a special exception from the women’s professional ranks. Alongside congratulatory comments, the thread also saw dissenting voices such as “a rule based on special favoritism just proves she’s not good enough” and “I wish she’d gotten through via the 3-dan league or the qualifying exam instead,” leaving reactions split.
What people said
1AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:23
Congrats
2AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:24
As a Kana Satomi fan, I've got mixed feelings about this
3AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:25
Re: #1
Fujii-kun: "I wonder if her motivation is guaranteed? 😡"
8AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:27
Re: #3
Fujii-kun: "I wonder if her playing strength is guaranteed? 😡"
10AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:28
Switching your ID between showing a trailing '0' and not, to reply to yourself again? (a common 5ch trick for faking multiple posters)
12AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:29
Women don't cut it in chess either — there's a theory that male and female brains are just wired differently
23AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:35
Re: #12
In Go, men and women actually compete head-to-head in the same matches, though
54AnonymousOct 10, 2026 18:09
Re: #12
If male and female brains were really wired differently, it wouldn't make sense that women dozens of times better at shogi than you exist. The gender gap in how many people even attempt to become a pro, plus differences in their environment, makes way more sense as the real explanation
14AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:30
There are plenty of female pros in mahjong, though
15AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:30
Ah, so this one's decided based solely on results in the women's tournaments? Becoming a pro this way is just going to make it obvious she doesn't have the strength for it
16AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:30
Wasn't the "I'm charging in now!" person already a women's professional player?
17AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:31
Mahjong has a strong luck factor — there's stuff like tenhou and chiihou (rare instant-win hands decided purely by the deal)
24AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:35
Guess having kids does weaken your game a bit, huh
25AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:36
Wait, it's neither the qualifying exam nor the apprentice school route? What kind of system is this
26AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:37
Honestly, both Fukuma and Nishiyama have already played tons of pro tournament games through the women's quota, so we already have a good read on how strong they are. We know they're on par with the lower-ranked men's pros, so they should just go ahead and make both of them full professionals already
27AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:38
Congrats
Still, I wish she'd gotten through via the 3-dan league or the qualifying exam
This time it's a rule based on special favoritism
28AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:39
Playing the women's circuit pays way better than grinding out wins against aging Free Class pros among the men, after all
29AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:39
A rule that basically exists just to manufacture female pro shogi players
32AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:40
Even if she gets in through the Free Class route, retiring within 10 years is basically a given
33AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:40
Congrats on the birth of pro player Mii-chan!
34AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:40
So is she going to play in both the women's pro tournaments and the regular pro tournaments from now on?
Thought that'd work her to death… but if she's not entering the Junisen (ranking tournament), it's not that different from now, since she already plays in most tournaments via the women's quota
36AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:41
The thread where it comes out that the 'Chuden' poster and the 'Asahi Net' poster were the same person all along (ISP tags exposing a sockpuppet)
38AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:43
Well, fine I guess
Let both Nishiyama and that other one — not Satomi, what's-her-name — in
40AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:48
Re: #23
Are we just going to ignore that there's a women's hiring quota for this?
42AnonymousOct 10, 2026 17:52
Is this person also going to get called 'Mii-chan'?
46AnonymousOct 10, 2026 18:02
If she'd just posted a winning record in the professional qualifying exam, nobody could've complained
48AnonymousOct 10, 2026 18:03
Fujii lost his title and the Fujii boom's fading, so they need a new topic to hype up
51AnonymousOct 10, 2026 18:05
It's already been decided, but I bet people who keep posting slander about it are going to start getting arrested from here on
I recall Nishiyama even placed runner-up (jiten) in the 3-dan league once, so if they were going to promote one woman from the women's ranks, she feels like the obvious pick
58AnonymousOct 10, 2026 18:16
68AnonymousOct 10, 2026 18:33
So it's basically like joining BEYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO without them even holding auditions? (referencing the Hello! Project idol group's audition process)
69AnonymousOct 10, 2026 18:37
Re: #68
It feels even more like getting in through the back door, so maybe it's worse than that
Background and Key Points of the Debate
In shogi, the only normal paths to becoming a full professional are winning the apprentice 3-dan league or passing the professional qualifying exam, and this marks the first time a special-exception promotion from the women’s professional ranks has ever been used. In the thread, comments attributing the strength gap between men and women to “differences in how male and female brains are built” drew pushback, with posters arguing that such a claim “can’t explain the existence of women players many times stronger than you” and that “the gender gap in how many people even attempt to become a pro, along with differences in their competitive environment, is a far more convincing explanation.” This reflects pushback against reducing the shortage of female professional shogi players to a simple difference in ability. Some also pointed out that women’s tournaments pay better than the regular professional circuit, suggesting there may be structural reasons making the standard route into the pros less appealing for women.
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