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The story
Shogi women’s professional Nishiyama Tomoka has passed the professional qualifying exam and become a 4-dan professional shogi player. Shogi 8-dan Sugimoto Masataka, known as the mentor of Fujii Sota, contributed an article to the Asahi Shimbun celebrating her “birth” as a pro. On 5ch, reactions split over her becoming a pro through this special exam route rather than the usual path, with some questioning whether her skill is really at title-contending level, and others countering that she has already beaten male professionals, including some competing in the Junisen (ranking tournament). The debate centered on one question: does winning in the Junisen alone prove a player’s true strength?
“I Want to Celebrate the Birth of ‘Professional Shogi Player Nishiyama Tomoka, 4-Dan’” — Shogi 8-Dan Sugimoto Masataka Contributes: Asahi Shimbun
October 31, 2026, 9:00 AM — Paid article
Sugimoto Masataka, 8-dan (in kimono, center back), served as the official witness for Game 5 of the 6th Hakurei-sen title match, where Nishiyama Tomoka Hakurei (front right) earned her professional qualification = October 10, 2026, 8:36 AM, Kanazawa City. Photo by Keiji Sato.
Source: asahi.com / Read the original article here
What people said
This is actually criticism of the men who created the 'women's quota' in the first place.
Also, some people are misinterpreting the whole 'guarantee of Fujii's skill level' thing, so I think part of this is damage control for that too.
The fact that she's cleared the qualifying exam route IS the guarantee. If anything, the current 3-dan league is less of a guarantee — no games against pros, and matchups are just drawn by lot.
She's already beaten several of them — did you not know that?
That's exactly why Nishiyama took the offer to go pro — she's trying to pave the way for those future female pros.
That's such an impossible bet, it doesn't even count.
She hasn't swept seven of anything.
I don't really follow the women's leagues — are there even 7 titles?
Do you even know how many games she's already won?
I'm talking about the Junisen (ranking tournament) lol. If she wins even one game there, I'll apologize. She'll learn how brutal shogi really is. Her skill probably doesn't even match Satomi at her peak.
The Junisen is just a system for keeping aging pros on life support — it doesn't actually guarantee skill level. Treating wins there as absolute truth… are you some kind of Junisen cultist?
Nishiyama has already beaten Junisen players, you know.
Do you really think this woman has enough skill to win a title? If you actually play shogi, don't her game records clearly show she's weak?
So are you strong enough to talk down to her like that? Show us your own game records then.
I'm an amateur 3-dan, but I could beat you lol. I just wanted to say the shogi world isn't as soft as people think.
That's the most annoying tier of people, honestly. 'Strong among amateurs but could never go pro' types tend to puff up and trash-talk the lower ranks of pros — happens in every field.
Depending on timing, she could easily have turned pro, so she's definitely stronger than your average former apprentice.
What's your own skill level? I'm not trying to diss her, if anything I'm rooting for her. It's just that in a pure meritocracy, the one who's going to get worn down is the woman who got in through a special-case exception.
My skill level is 530,000. But don't worry, I obviously have no intention of going full power against you… (a riff on the 'power level' jokes from anime/manga culture)
People said the same thing about Fujii back in the day, and when it actually happened, he turned out to be ridiculously strong.
Yeah exactly. These special-case routes are cruel in their own way — it can start to look like a public execution. Hope she doesn't burn out from it.
Rating-wise, Free Class opponents probably won't be much of an issue for her. Whether she can climb from C2 to C1 later probably comes down to luck though.
Background and Key Points of Debate
The professional qualifying exam is a system that lets women’s professionals or amateurs who’ve posted strong results in official competitions challenge current pros to a five-game match — winning three makes them a 4-dan professional. It’s one of the few routes into the pro ranks that bypasses the Shoreikai apprentice system. Nishiyama Tomoka had attempted this exam several times before, and this latest pass earned her professional qualification. The thread split between those who argued her skill level is “still unproven” since she has no experience in the Junisen ranking tournament, and those who countered that her track record of beating Junisen-level pros in general tournaments like the NHK Cup proves she’s “more than capable.” The Junisen is widely regarded as the benchmark for players who’ve cleared the 3-dan league, but exam-route players never had the structural opportunity to rack up that kind of experience — a gap that’s fueling the talking-past-each-other in the debate. It’s also easy to overlook that although people often call it the “women’s quota,” the qualifying exam itself isn’t limited by gender — it’s not actually a special women-only track.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “‘I Want to Celebrate the Birth of Professional Shogi Player Nishiyama Tomoka, 4-Dan’ — Shogi 8-Dan Sugimoto Masataka Contributes.”
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