TOKYO – The Japanese Ice Hockey Federation named Greg Thomson as the new head coach for the men’s national team. Four months ago he was the assistant of Mark Mahon, who left earlier last season after 12 years behind the bench in Japan.

Like his predecessor Thomson possesses Canadian and German citizenship. The 52-year-old Edmonton native spent most of his playing and coaching career in Germany, the country he also represented internationally at the 1993 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.

During the past eight years he was mostly working as an assistant coach in the top German league DEL for ERC Ingolstadt, Adler Mannheim and Augsburger Panther and temporarily as head coach in Ingolstadt and Augsburg.

Thomson also worked as an assistant coach to Mahon with Japanese selections on two occasions, at the 2011 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division I Group A in Bobruisk, Belarus, and at the recent 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A in Krakow, Poland.

Thomson already started his new job with a camp and three exhibition games in Russia’s Far East against KHL team Amur Khabarovsk, which the Russians won 5-1, 3-0 and 3-1 respectively. He was supported by Japanese assistant coaches Takeshi Yamanaka and Takahito Suzuki, who both used to play for the national team in the past.

During the November international break the Japanese will travel to Europe for a four nations tournament with host Latvia, Belarus and Italy.

From 11 to 14 February Japan will host the 2016 Men’s Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round 2 Group J in Sapporo and battle for a ticket to the Final Olympic Qualification with Ukraine, Croatia and Romania.

In April Japan will play Austria, Slovenia, host Poland, Italy and Korea in the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A.