Yuuri is not just Japan’s top male skater, but their top skater period.
Compare the Japanese Skating Federation website in YOI to the actual one when YOI was airing.
Notice that the real one splits it up between Yuzu and Satoko, giving both of them coverage on the website’s graphics?
In YOI, Yuuri is the ONLY figure skater shown.
He’s Japan’s Ace, 100%. Not just in men’s, but in all disciplines of figure skating.
Obviously Satton is not as winning as Yuzu, but the JSF considered her successful on a close enough level to showcase her. There’s no figure skater but Yuuri on the other hand, on the YOI JSF graphics. Although they do, judging by the image above, have at least two women competing at a high senior international level, they aren’t as successful as Yuuri.
There’s not even a potential argument imo that the animators just didn’t want to draw another image, because they did draw two different images of Yuuri to use on the banners. They even reused the speed skater art on the sidebars, which is unlike the actual site, but they made sure to draw a separate, new Yuuri for the sidebar.
Btw this is what the top JSF page looked like when YOI was airing:
(It’s a slideshow that goes through several other images, so some of the other images did feature other figure skaters, but the static graphics are only of Yuzuru and Satoko)
There’s a tendency in fandom to not acknowledge what Yuuri’s level of celebrity is. Even from fans who acknowledge his success, it’s rare. Because we see him in his hometown, where people kind of leave him be, and because Victor is SO famous, I think this is exacerbated in fandom.
But he is undoubtedly very famous and is a big celebrity in his home country. He’d certainly do a lot of endorsements and he’s definitely got a summer schedule full of ice shows.
Would he be rich? No, not yet. Skating is that expensive (plus I personally imagine that he sends money to the onsen). You really have to get to an extremely high level of success to start making a lot of money. But he is probably comfortable.
He is the most famous (currently competing) figure skater in Japan though, and, it seems, their most successful.
wabi sabi 