Japan skip Satsuki Fujisawa won twice today to qualify for the page 1-2 play-off game at the World Women’s Curling Championship ©WCF

Japan earned their first-ever spot in a World Women’s Curling Championship page 1-2 play-off game after dismantling both Scotland and Canada on the final day of round-robin play at the Credit Union iPlex in Swift Current in Saskatchewan.

Skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa, Japan thrashed Scotland 10-4 in the morning before beating home country Canada 11-2 in the afternoon.

Japan finished the round-robin with a 9-2 record along with Switzerland, who followed up a 5-4 win against Italy by defeating South Korea 7-5.

Switzerland beat Japan on Tuesday (March 22) and will therefore go into tomorrow's page 1-2 play-off as the number one seeds. 

The winner will contest the gold-medal game on Sunday (March 27), while the loser will drop into the semi-final on Saturday (March 26).

"The confidence definitely carried us through today," Calgarian J.D. Lind, coach of the Japanese team, said after the sweep of Scotland and Canada.

"At the middle of the week, it really could have gone either way.

"The team responded and right now they are super loose and not over-thinking anything."

Lind said there were mixed emotions in beating Canada given his relationship with opposite number Charley Thomas, who he coached at the 2007 World Junior Championships, and the players, who also hail from Calgary.

It marked Japan’s first victory over Canada since 1999 and ensured their place in the page play-offs for just the third time in 21 attempts as they go in search of a first-ever World Championship medal.

Canada reached the play-offs after beating Scotland in a winner-takes-all match ©WCF
Canada reached the play-offs after beating Scotland in a winner-takes-all match ©WCF

Russia also earned a spot in the play-offs with an 10-7 extra-end win over Denmark, meaning they finished the round-robin at 8-3.

Anna Sidorova and her team from Moscow had earlier put together a tidy 8-3 win over Germany’s Daniela Driendl as they look to improve on the bronze medals they won at the past two World Women's Championships.

Canada and Scotland were left battle it out for the other play-off place with both nations holding 7-3 records.

It was the Canadians, who have not won the title since 2008, that prevailed 9-4 winners to set up a page 3-4 play-off game against Russia on Saturday.

The winner will move into the semi-final, while the loser will play for the bronze medal on Sunday against the beaten semi-finalist.

"You control the things you can control and we were lucky enough to make enough rocks to score," said Canada skip Chelsea Carey.

"Our number one goal is accomplished now, but I wouldn't say the pressure was off.

"We were in a precarious position though, and we'll see if we can string together a couple of more wins."