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Image: Billiards Days
August 14 and 15, 2026. Kannai, Yokohama.
Introducing the players to watch at SANSIAS presents Yokohama 14-1 Summit.
I asked about his high run.
“Forgot.”
A short pause.
He didn’t seem to mind, and the talk simply moved on.
It was the answer of a man who has played 14.1 for seventeen years.
Perhaps today’s shot matters more than any number.
We asked him to sum up 14.1, straight pool, in a single word.
“All of pocket billiards.”
Why keep playing 14.1?
“Because it’s the quickest way to get better at pool.”
He says nothing more than he needs to.
And yet that one line seemed to hold all the time he has put in.
Is there a match that stays with him?
“It’s just everyday life, so not really.”
Back-to-back Japan Open titles (2022 and 2023).
And that is what the man who holds that record says.
It isn’t that no match was special.
Every match, I think, is simply one more layer.
Where is it hardest?
“The long pot after the break.”
The break scatters the balls, and then you must sink a far one cleanly.
That is the doorway into 14.1, and also its steepest stretch.
Iima named a single strength.
“Being able to settle the order to clear everything.”
Which ball to start with, where to open the clusters, how to finish.
He builds the whole table as a single blueprint.
And at the center of his practice?
“Stroke. Shooting.”
Nothing showy in the words.
Only the fundamentals, polished and polished again.
Among the players who shaped him, he named Tadakatsu Kuranomae.
A player who has run at the front of the game for a long time.
With that back always ahead of him, Iima has kept facing this game.
A target score?
“As far as it’ll go.”
He gave no number.
He has no intention of setting a ceiling in advance.
Finally, I asked how he felt going into the Summit.
“I’d like to play some good shots!”
Iima is based in Osaka.
He is coming all the way to Yokohama for this.
Not wanting to win, but wanting to play good shots.
That one line was Tomoya Iima, the player.
And a word for anyone who wants to take up 14.1.
“It’s a difficult game, but if you don’t give up and keep at it, you will get better. You will!”
He said it twice: you will.
And the man who won the Japan Open two years running stands by it.
Tomoya Iima
Affiliation: JPBA / DRAGON
Major results: Japan Open champion, back to back (2022, 2023)
Years playing 14.1: 17
Cue: Zen Custom Cue
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👉 Yokohama 14-1 Summit 2026: event details
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