Aaron Keller: Japan is different than I expected

18 Apr 2013 | Tomáš Salamon

Aaron Keller was involved in three of six Japanese goals in the game against South Korea and was announced as the best Japanese player of the game. He is satisfied with first victory of his team in this tournament and also hopes that the team is going to reach bronze medals. We asked him why the Canadian native decided to play ice hockey in Japan.

Aaron, you have played in Japan for 15 years. Why did you decide to move there?

Actually in past I played in AHL and few teams from Japan asked me, if I can play for them. They called me because of my Japanese heritage I guess. My grandparents are from Japan, so that was actually the reason why I came over. Obviously I was interested in it and when I was 22 I jumped over here. It was a great decision for my career.

Were your Japanese roots an advantage to get used to Japanese habits?

Well, I was growing up in Canada for my whole life, but my mum and few other family members were Japanese, so I thought that I knew what to expect from the culture. But when I first time went over to Japan, it was pretty different. I did not expect that it is going to be that different, but I had to get used to it.

Could you compare the Canadian and Asian style of hockey?

In Canada I would have been the smallest guy for all the time, but in Japan I was one of the bigger guys, so that makes the difference. Also the speed is important. All the Japanese guys are good skaters, but back to Canada I would have been probably the slowest guy in the team. In Japan I was on international ice for the first time in my life, so it was obviously a good adjustment for me.

Do you think that the Japanese hockey is so strong that the team is able to move up to the top division of World Championship in the future?

These are conditions we are trying to build here. There are many overseas imports as me in the league. We are trying to build a base and hopefully the Japanese players are going to learn something from all of the imports and raise the level in our club teams and national league. Step by step, slowly… but hopefully we can build up to moving up to the next level.

Thank you. Good luck in the next game.

You can watch what Aaron said after victory against South Korea.