Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita: “Until now, people may have said that Japan wasn’t strong in couples events, but Riku and Ryuichi taught us that Japanese athletes can become strong. They made us want to become strong as Japanese ice dancers, too.”

Ice dancers Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita, silver medalists at the Milan-Cortina Olympic team event, expressed admiration for gold medalist pair Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara at the "Bloom On Ice" show and welcomed the announcement of a new couples-focused ice show.