Oh man...how should we begin!!
Japan has such a long and illustrious history in aquascaping, especially in IAPLC. In the 19 years history of IAPLC , Japan has won an unprecedented 6x individual Grand Champions and 3x individual champion in the last 10 years alone!! In term of the Nations Challenge, Japan as a nation has won 4 times world champion in the last 10 years, sharing the honour with China (also 4x).
If we want to evaluate the strength of a country in a competition like the Nations Challenge - a team event, we do not look at their #1 top scaper, or #2.....we look at their 4th or 5th scapers. Take a look at the 10 years IAPLC history of Japan, there is no doubt that their #1 scapers were always in the top7 every year (except 2017 - mainly because their best scaper were absent that year). But....Japan's best average rankings as a nation (2011 and 2014) were not achieved in the years where their #1 scapers were getting the best result, in the 2 years where Japan achieved a sub-10 average ranking, even their 5th scapers in the country were getting individual ranking of 13th and 14th in the world! If we look across their 10 years history, all their 4th scapers were in the top27 without fail and only twice in the last 10 years, their 5th scapers fell outside of top27 (30 and 34...which are also excellent result by all means)! That is how strong Japan is as an aquascaping nation! They have quality scapers all over their team and they have absolutely no weak link!
The main aquascaping style in Japan is of course - NA. Being the home of Nature Aquarium, the understanding and execution of the NA concept from the Japanese is unmatched anywhere in the world. However, in the recent 5 years, we started we observe that more contemporary aquascaping style emerging from Japan, many top Japanese layouts in recent years were no longer the pure old school NA, the transformation is gradual but it is happening for sure.
Strength and weakness
What makes Japan so strong? We believe that there are many reasons but we will share just few main ones.
1) Japan is home to the ONLY true aquascaping legend and master in the world - the late Mr Takashi Amano. Mr Amano's influence in aquascaping world is unimaginable, unrivalled and nobody will ever come remotely close - all these descriptions are still very much an understatement. There is absolutely no words that can possibly descript the contribution of the greatest man ever graced the aquascaping world. Japan, being the root and home of Mr Amano, is definitely being influenced the most, and the result is apparent! As mentioned earlier, their knowledge of Nature Aquarium is immense and that is a big advantage! Although not all their top layouts are traditional NA, but we believe that the understanding of NA somehow helps their top scapers in executing any other layout styles with better "underwater" feeling - that is a big requirement in IAPLC.
2) Although Japan is undoubtedly strong as a nation, but we cannot deny the fact that there are some incredible individual heroic in recent years that push Japan to a greater height! Japan's aquascaping story would not be completed without mentioning some of their aquascaping heroes! The first person that comes to everybody's mind, is none other than their top scaper and probably the undisputed best scaper in the world currently, who achieved an unprecedented back to back IAPLC Grand Champion in 2015 and 2016, his last 5 IAPLC ranking includes: 2nd, 5th, 1st, 1st, 3rd!! Some say he is not from this planet but wherever he comes from, he has cemented his status in aquascaping folklore not only in Japan but around the world! There is also another legendary Japanese scaper who has reached top27 ranking an amazing and record breaking 10x! Having won the Gold Prize (world ranking #2) 3 times, he is generally being regarded as a Grand Champion only without a crown - maybe he will get one soon !! There are also many other fantastic Japanese scapers that consistently WOW us with their outstanding masterpieces - you can see some of their works in the attached photo.
**We apologize for not being able to show you all of the great layouts from Japan as there are simply too many! If you have have a favorite Japanese layout that we missed and you would love to share, kindly post it in the comment section. Thank you.
Speaking about the weakness of Japan in the context of Nations Challenge, there is absolutely none! They are such a "complete" team with so much quality throughout their ranks. If...and that is a big IF...there is a country that can topple Japan as world #1 in the IAPLC Nations Challenge, it is not due to the weakness of Japan, it can only be achieved by being stronger than them, out-perform them, that is the only way to beat an flawless opponent - if it is possible at all.
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