You might say Shin Yahata is the Tom Jones of the Japan Ice Hockey League. And while he has yet to experience women tossing their underwear at him as he tools around the ice for the Kokudo Bunnies, it may only be a matter of time.

"It's a lot of fun, actually," says the shy, unassuming Yahata, when asked his reaction to the clusters of squealing females that cheer him on the ice and wait for him after games. "There's probably more girls than men watching the games, so why not? It's great."

Yahata, who grew up in Sweden as Shin Larsson, is quick to put things in perspective, however.

"I was back home this summer playing in an exhibition game with (Colorado Avalanche star) Peter Forsberg. There were thousands of people waiting for him after the game. He was pretty cool, though, he just sat in the dressing room talking on his cell phone until they could clear a way out for him."

Yahata, 26, is a speedy, playmaking center who was among the "Seven Samurai" (North American and European players of Japanese heritage) brought over to Japan prior to the 1998 Nagano Winter Games to boost the host country's chances in the Olympic hockey tournament.

And Yahata, who led the JIHL in scoring two years ago with 64 points in 37 games, certainly paid dividends in Nagano, scoring the winning goal in a penalty shootout with Austria for Japan's only victory of the competition.

"The Olympics were the highlight of my hockey career for sure, in all kinds of ways," says Yahata. "That (win over Austria) was great. Actually, I took another shot before that in the shootout and I missed, but they gave me another chance and I scored on that one, so that was a big thrill.

"We'd been playing well the three games before that. We already had a tie against Belarus, so it was kind of nice for everybody to get a win to finish it off. I think we surprised some people."

Yahata, who was born in Leksand in central Sweden to a Japanese mother and Swedish father, took on his mother's maiden name when he acquired Japanese citizenship prior to the Nagano Olympics. Now in his seventh season here, Yahata took a rather circuitous route before landing in his mom's birthplace of Tokyo.

"When I was 19 years old, going into my last year of junior eligibility, either I could play on the fourth line of my Swedish Elite League team or try something else," explains Yahata, "so I ended up going to Montreal and played there for a year."

After spending an injury-plagued season with Verdun of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 1993-94, where the biggest adjustments were the smaller ice surface and "of course more fights," Yahata was contacted by the coach of Japan's national team, which was recruiting overseas players who would be eligible to play for Japan in the Olympics.

He answered the call, and now that he's here, Yahata would like to stay for a while.

"I kind of like to take it year-by-year, but I'd love to play another 2-3 years in Japan," Yahata says, adding that he'd like to see the Japan League promoted a little more because the level of hockey "is actually a lot better than people think."

Yahata, whose Kokudo teammate Yujiro Nakajimaya, attended the Nashville Predators' training camp prior to this season, thinks a born-and-bred Japanese playing in the NHL would boost the sport's image dramatically in Japan.

"That would be the best thing that could happen to Japanese hockey. Look at what happened to soccer here after (Hidetoshi) Nakata went to Italy, and (Hideo) Nomo in baseball . . . it would be great, promotion-wise."

But before those in charge here think about sending local players to the National Hockey League, they'll have to get their own affairs in order first. The current six-team Japan League may be down to four clubs next season, as the financially strapped Snow Brand and Nikko Ice Bucks franchises have both announced plans to discontinue their hockey operations.

"That would be a real shame, to lose those teams," laments Yahata. "If they had more teams here, more players could keep playing hockey even longer and I think you'd improve the level of play even more."

Yahata is currently sidelined by a nagging back injury, something he described as a "hernia" before having it pointed out that he was undoubtedly referring to a herniated disc. (Remember, he's a hockey player, not a doctor, and he does switch effortlessly between Swedish, English and Japanese, with a little locker-room French available if needed.)

Although his sore back has limited him to just seven games so far this season, he has started skating again and hopes to be back in the Kokudo lineup soon. Until then, keep your panties on ladies. While Yahata is certainly no choirboy, he plans to do most of his scoring on the ice.