Kanako Murakami, a 16-year-old female figure skater, has been blazing a trail in the Japanese figure skating world this year. In October, Murakami won a bronze medal in the ISU Grand Prix NHK Trophy and made a brilliant world debut as a senior skater. Then in Skate America, held early this month, she won the gold medal and thus grabbed the first ticket to this season's Grand Prix finals, ahead of all the other senior skaters such as Mao Asada and Miki Ando.

Murakami joined a skating club in Nagoya at the age of five. Nagoya is also the hometown of Asada, the longtime figure skating heroine of Japan, who won the silver medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010. Being four years younger than Asada, Murakami has been a good "sister" of Asada for more than 10 years. When Murakami entered the same high school as Asada this spring, she seemed glad to wear the school uniform that Asada had once worn and had given to Murakami, with Asada's name still embroidered on it.

Although Murakami had always been considered one of a number of promising female junior skaters, she emerged as a top skater only recently. She proceeded to the Junior Grand Prix finals in 2008, just after making her debut as a junior skater. Then in the 2009/2010 season, she won both the World Junior Figure Skating Championships and the Junior Grand Prix finals. Audiences would be drawn into her energetic, lively dance performance and fresh, cheerful smile without realizing it.

With Asada not doing so well this season, Murakami seems to be getting even more attention. However, some of Murakami’s other "older sisters" are also showing their ability─this month, 22-year-old Miki Ando won the gold medals and 25-year-old Akiko Suzuki won the silver medals in both the Cup of China and the Cup of Russia. Asada has been working very hard to improve her jumping skill with her new coach. For Japanese figure skating fans, it seems that this season will be more exciting than ever.