Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada fell twice but the host still won the Japan Open figure skating team event Saturday for the fourth time in five years.
Mao, Miki Ando, Daisuke Takahashi and Takahiko Kozuka combined for 517.36 points for Japan, 0.13 clear of second-place North America in the one-day meet at Saitama Super Arena. Evgeni Plushenko's Team Europe finished last with 460.11.
Takahashi landed a quad toe loop for the first time since he had right knee surgery two years ago and tallied 159.19 points, the second highest score among the male skaters.
On the women's side, Canada's Joannie Rochette had the best score of 122.71.
Mao was fifth out of six skaters, under-rotating her triple axel and earning just 92.44.
"I'm still too far away from what I want to do," she said. "But now I've skated my new program, so I'm sure I can improve by just doing what I do in training. My jumps will come back, too, if I work a little more."
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.