{"id":72779,"date":"2025-08-18T17:53:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T15:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/?p=72779"},"modified":"2025-08-18T17:53:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T15:53:23","slug":"watchman-japanese-cswc-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/watchman-japanese-cswc-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWatchman\u201d Japanese CSWC Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the city of Chiba, just outside Tokyo, Japan hosted its first ever Cigar Smoking World Championship qualifying event. The country is the latest of debutants in the circuit and the competition took place inside the elegant Liqueur Plaza, owned by Yuzo Ohkoshi, Japan\u2019s largest online cigar distributor.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the first puff, the atmosphere was electric,\u201d CSWC founder Marko Bilic says. \u201cCompetitors leaned into their cigars, eyes fixed on the slow burn, while friends and supporters cheered them on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the settings were new, the main man in charge was not. Nobuhiro Nakamura, is a legendary Japanese judge within the slow smoking community. By his side was newcomer Motohiko Sato and together they saw Syo \u201cWatchman\u201d Aghajy become the historic first Japanese national CSWC champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a steady hand and iron focus, \u201cWatchman\u201d outlasted them all,\u201d Bilic says.<\/p>\n

At 1 hour 24 minutes and 8 seconds he was about four minutes ahead of runner-up, Akihiro Tashiro, and another three minutes better than Masato Ishizuki<\/p>\n

After the race was over, Ohkoshi invited guests to his family\u2019s traditional Japanese restaurant. With food cooked by his own mother, the night was brought to a perfect end.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in Japan for the first time, surrounded by such warm, passionate people, and seeing the CSWC spirit come alive here was unforgettable,\u201d Bilic concludes. \u201cThis was more than a competition. It was the birth of a new chapter in the country\u2019s cigar culture, and if the spirit, passion, and skill shown in Chiba are any indication, Japan is here to stay in the world of slow smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aghay as well as Okhosi and a few other competitors are now planning their travels to represent Japan at the grand final in Split.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Syo \u201cWatchman\u201d Aghajy 1:24:08<\/li>\n
  2. Akihiro Tashiro 1:20:15<\/li>\n
  3. Masato Ishizuki 1:16:52<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    CSWC in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":72780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[49,63,44],"tags":[5366],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72782,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72779\/revisions\/72782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}