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Image: Billiard Web CUE’S
Yokohama BC Count9 Battle, on April 29 (Wed., public holiday).
This tournament is, in truth, remarkably lavish.
From the last 32, top pros will provide live commentary.
Active top pros commentating on a BC tournament (an event for B and C class players): anyone who plays billiards will sense at once how unusual that is.
Here we introduce one of the two commentators: Hayato Hijikata.
Who is Hayato Hijikata?
Born in 1989, in Tokyo.
His father ran a billiard hall, and in 1999, when he was in fifth grade, a TV crew’s visit led him to pick up a cue for the first time.
He began training in earnest the following year, and within just a few years stood at the top of the amateur game.
In 2005 he won silver at the World Junior 9-Ball Championship.
The next year, 2006, he turned pro as the youngest player ever, in the JPBA’s (Japan Professional Pocket Billiard Association) 40th class.
He began winning from his very first year as a pro, and for twenty years since has stayed at the front of the Japanese game.
A distinguished record
JPBA ranking No. 1: 2013, 2016, 2023, 2024, 2025 (including the first three-year run in its history)
All Japan 14.1 Championship: three titles (2018, 2024, 2025, including back-to-back wins)
China Open 2024: runner-up (his first final at a major overseas event)
World 8-Ball Championship 2025: bronze medal
Holder of Japan’s official record for consecutive break-and-runs (eight in a row)
First perfect game in an official match, a world first (2010)
Not content with the domestic stage, he takes on the world’s strongest players in earnest, and he is right now in the prime of his career.
In fact, the tournament’s game, Count 9, was devised by Hijikata himself
Here we’d like to share something you cannot leave out when talking about this tournament.
The game played at this Yokohama BC Count9 Battle, Count 9 (Count9 / Self Count9), was in fact devised by Hijikata himself.
By turning 9-ball play into points, it offers something new: your own ability, shown as an objective number. A break-and-run (clearing the table) is worth 10 points, and the score drops with every miss. Because it measures your level while keeping the tension of a real match, it has spread to billiard halls all over the country.
At this tournament, B class and C class each have a set target (B class: 40 points / C class: 30 points), and the first player to reach it wins: a thrilling format.
A game created by a top pro as the stage, and that very pro in the commentary booth: you could not ask for a better setting.
What it means to have “Japan’s No. 1” on commentary
We’d like you to pause here for a moment and think about this.
A chance to have Japan’s top-ranked pro commentate on a BC tournament almost never comes.
This is not a pro tournament. It is an event where everyday amateurs are the stars.
And yet, with Hijikata in the booth, every shot gains “a pro’s eye.”
Ways of aiming, ways of attacking, the purpose behind a stance you’d never known: all of it put into words in real time.
For the players, it should be a rare luxury, like taking a lesson while playing a match.
Don’t miss his YouTube channel!
Hijikata also runs a YouTube channel, “Hayato Hijikata’s Billiards TV.”
With more than 60,000 subscribers, it covers a wide range, from technique explained to the inside story of matches.
Do take a look before the tournament, and build up the anticipation of “this is the man who’ll be commentating on me.”
🎬 Hayato Hijikata’s Billiards TV (YouTube)
Sponsors
Here are the sponsors who support Hijikata.
Mezz Cues
Jiyu Kukan
BIZEN TIP
JUST DO IT
Kokokarada
Session
LRI
GLOBAL GROVE
SNS
Coming up next
Our next commentator is Lo Li-wen, a player among players, who has fought many memorable matches with Hijikata at the All Japan 14.1.
And in fact, commentary is not all that’s planned for the day.
An exhibition match of Count 9, Hijikata vs. Lo, is also on the program.
Hijikata, the game’s creator, and Lo, his fated rival in 14.1, going head to head in this very game: just watching it promises to be something you won’t want to miss.
Please come and see it at the venue on the day!
Yokohama BC Count9 Battle
📅 April 29 (Wed., public holiday)
📍 POOL LABO (Isezakicho, Naka-ku, Yokohama)
💰 Entry fee: ¥5,000
🏆 Winner’s prize: playing cue (worth ¥140,000)
👉 Tournament details
👉 Billiards resources from Japan and around the world, organized by purpose: Billiards in Depth (latest updated hourly)
