There’s no secret that Japan is the leading country in the world when it comes to shoe shining. It’s also evident in their domestic shoe shine contest, which has been growing each year since it’s first edition a few years ago. This weekend the final rounds took place in Osaka, with Ryu Niita being crowned the new Japanese champion. Also a mention of an event on the world championships of shoemaking at Isetan Men’s in Tokyo Friday November 15.
I’ve been mentioning it before, but feel it’s worth mentioning again: when I did the first Swedish shoe shining championships back in 2014, little could I imagine that this type of contests would take off the way it has. Apart from the things I’ve been directly involved with myself, the world championships in London, the US champs in New York, and the Dutch championships in Amsterdam (plus, as mentioned in a previous article, we will also do an Asian Championships of Shoe Shining when we finally do a super trunk show in Singapore in January 2026), it has also inspired other versions where many have the same or similar rules that has been organised or still are organised. This includes a shine contest in Moscow, Russia, a European contest called Golden Brush organised in Brussels, a shine contest for American cobblers, the Chilean shoe shining championships, and so on.
From the final day of the Japanese shoe shine contest in Osaka.
The biggest one of these is without a doubt the Japanese shoe shine championships, which is no surprise. It’s a country with a big interest in classic shoes and shoe care, and which has a lot of professional shoe shiners working in shoe shine bars, at hotels etc. The fact that four of the six world champions comes from Japan also says a lot. Yuya Hasegawa who won the first world championships of shoe shining was part of setting up the Japanese champs together with among others Keita Tashiro of the department store company Isetan Mitsukoshi, with the formal host being the Japanese Leather Products Mainenance Association.
It’s been growing year on year, nowadays Keita Tashiro works part time with organising the Japanese shoe shining contest, and it has no less than 64 contestants (a couple of amateur shiners, but almost all are professional shoe shiners). First there were two qualification rounds of 32 in each (to get a spot there one register and pay an entry fee, on a first come first serve basis), one held in Fukuoka and one in Tokyo, and from each of these eight people qualified to the final weekend in Osaka.
Exhibition area in the event hall in Osaka.
Shoes shined in the semi final rounds from Saturday.
This was held this past weekend, in the huge department story Hankyu Umeda and their event hall. Apart from the shine contest there were a few shoe brands exhibiting, with Tokyo Foot Tailor 3D scanning feet to help find the right size in their shoes and also other exhibiting brands, and the top three shoes of the world shoemaking champs and patina winner were on display. On Saturday it was semi finals, and from there three qualified directly to the final on Sunday, while three took “lucky loser” spots where they were to battle it out for the fourth and last spot in the final in a repechage round.
It’s not only the road to the final that is extensive and quite advanced, there’s also other rules where one not only judge shoe shine quality and beauty (this stands for 80% of the points) but also the presentation (this is 20% of the points), how expressive and enthusiastic they are on stage and how well they present their work. Cause after every round the shiners have 45 seconds to explain their thoughts on their work and motivate why they should win. They can choose from loads of shoe care products from four different brands, and are also to use conditioner and shoe cream apart from the regular wax polish, plus: shine a full pair in 20 minutes. Despite this, the contestants manage to achieve great results, even if one don’t see as smashing extreme shines of the whole shoes as we see in the world championships, where just one shoe is shined in the same time.
A lot of products are used in each shine session, not only wax polish, and the contestants can choose from four different brands.
Overall, it’s a more “nerdy” contest, which works really well here in Japan where the interest and knowledge, and the amount of great shiners, is so big. For contests like the world championships it’s more important to have it accessible and easy to understand also for “regular people” and “regular media”, to promote the shoe shine artistry and increase the recognition, so there I think it makes sense to keep rules more direct and make the end result even more impressive for an untrained eye, so to speak.
I was in Osaka for the final day of the Japanese shine contest. A familiar face in the repechage round was Naoki Ueda, who we had in the world champs final in 2022 where he lost to Ash Samsudin from Singapore. Here Naoki shined a black double monk strap really well and snatch the last spot in the final ahead of his two opponents, Yo Hamaoka and Yuito Suzuki.
The repechage round, with Naoki Ueda, Yo Hamaoka and Yuito Suzuki. Here also two of the organisers and hosts, Keita Tashiro and Terry Vtzdanski.
A proper sports timer showed how much was left of the 20 minutes.
The shine that took Naoki Ueda to the final.
So, the four in the final were Naoki Ueda of Penny Lane Shoe Shine Boys in Osaka, Ryu Niita of Brift H Aoyama, Genta Saito of Ginza Shoe Shine Shop, and Teroyushi Tomigashi of GMT Factory. Here there were two shine sessions, first 20 minutes they were to shine a pair of black Shell cordovan plain toe derbies, in the second wingtip double monk straps in burgundy museum calf. Two different and tough challenges.
The finalists have a look at the shoes ahead of the first session in the final.
Finalists, from the left: Naoki Ueda, Ryu Niita, Genta Saito and Teroyushi Tomigashi.
First world shoe shine champion and shoe shine ambassadeur Yuya Hasegawa doing jury duty.
Examining.
After jury review, Ryu Niita was announced as the Japanese shoe shining champion of 2024. He did achieve a great result on both pairs, with neatly made shines made with a high technical level and few mistakes. It’s impressive to see how these top shiners have managed to handle different materials and styles throughout all the sessions in the contest, for something that extensive experience is key, so one can adjust the technique in the right way. The Japanese is surely leading the way here when it comes to professional shoe shining.
You can watch the live streams from the shine event on the Japanese shoe shine championships’ Youtube channel. The broadcasts are long (final day was about four hours in total) but you can fast forward to the shine sessions.
Ryu Niita is announced the 2024 Japanese champion.
His two pairs that were shined in the final, to the left the cordovan one, the right in museum calf.
Lifting the trophy.
For those in the Tokyo area, we will host a world championships of shoemaking event at Isetan Men’s Shinjuku store, at the shoe department, on Friday November 15 between 18-00-19.30. Come and see the top three shoes, plus the patina winner, and meet me, winner Ken Hishinuma and second placed Hiroshi Takagi. Ken with his brand Khish Ken will also take orders. Hope to see some of you there!
A good chance to admire the top shoes from this year’s world championships, when they stop in Japan on their tour around the world.
