Japan’s Olympic silver medallist Yuma Kagiyama took the lead after the NHK Trophy short programme on Friday, with countryman Kao Miura snapping at his heels after a personal-best performance.
Kagiyama, making his first appearance of the Grand Prix season, scored 105.70 in Tokyo to sit in first place ahead of Miura, who earned a best-ever mark of 102.96.
Japan’s Tatsuya Tsuboi was a distant third on 85.02.
Kagiyama has struggled with injuries since finishing behind American Nathan Chen at the 2022 Beijing Olympics but he said he was back to his best on home ice.
“As soon as I started practicing at the venue, I felt the way I did at the Olympics,” said Kagiyama.
“At the Olympics I felt great from start to finish, and I’m happy that my body feels even better now than it did then.”
Dressed all in black and skating to “The Sound of Silence”, Kagiyama performed a clean routine.
“It all went like it does in practice, from start to finish,” he said.
Miura was competing in his second Grand Prix event of the season, having finished third at Skate America last month.
He made no mistakes in his routine and let out a scream of joy when he was awarded his score.
“I wasn’t doing well in practice and I was in a bad way, but I went back to the hotel, relaxed and got into a new frame of mind,” he said.
Miura played down his chances of catching Kagiyama in Saturday’s free skate.
“He’s exceptional so I’m not thinking about him,” he said.
“I don’t want to think about the points, I just want to go out and skate my free programme with confidence and give my best performance.”
Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara led the pairs competition ahead of Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava and Americans Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea.
In ice dance, Madison Chock and Evan Bates were in first place ahead of fellow Americans Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko and Lithuania’s Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius.