The or LPSA is a guild of women's professional shogi players headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The organization was established in May 2007 when a number of women's shogi professionals decided to leave the Japan Shogi Association (JSA) due to disagreements over various matters. The current representative director of the organization is Hiromi Nakakura.
Structure
Legal status
The LSPA is officially registered as a () under Japanese law and has been as such since July 1, 2012. Prior to that, the LSPA had been officially registered first as a limited liability intermediary corporation from its founding until November 30, 2008, and then as a from December 1, 2008, until June 30, 2012.
Members
the LPSA has seventeen members of which eight are active professionals, five are lesson (retired) professionals and four are LPSA professionals. Strong amateur female players under the age of 40 who qualify and perform well in women's professional shogi tournaments can apply to become LPSA members and receive the rank of women's professional 2-kyū. In addition, female members of the Japan Shogi Association (JSA) training group system who are promoted to Group B2 may also apply for LPSA membership. Per a 2014 agreement reached between the LPSA and JSA to cooperate and work together in matters related to women's professional shogi and shogi in general, players awarded women's professional status by either organization are recognized as such by the other.
Annual meetings and directors
The members of the LPSA meet formally once a year (they may meet more times as needed) to discuss official business and other matters relevant to the association. Five directors are elected once every two years to oversee certain aspects of the association's operations, and a representative director is selected from among the directors to act as the official representative of the association as needed. Two internal auditors as well as other persons serving as advisers or consultants assist the directors in overseeing and determining association operations.
List of representative directors
Activities
The LPSA sponsors a number of amateur shogi tournaments for young girls and women. It is also a cosponsor for the women's professional major title tournament the .
History
Background
Prior to 1974, women were given the opportunity to attempt to become regular professionals (正規棋士 seiki kishi) by trying to obtain such status via the 's professional shogi player apprentice school, but none were able to obtain such status. There were women such as Akiko Takojima who were members of the JSA, but they were primarily lesson professionals who helped teach others the game and appeared at shogi events or on TV as assistants to help with demonstration-board commentary as opposed to being tournament professionals that competed against their peers. The JSA, therefore, decided in 1974 to establish a separate ranking and promotion systems for women's professionals in 1974 along with the , the first major tournament solely for women's professionals. Separate systems for amateurs aspiring to become a women's professionals were also established.
Although the upgrade to women's professional status did give women more opportunities to pursue shogi as a vocation, they were still non-voting members of the JSA who were ineligible to run for any organizational offices and generally not considered to be of the same status as regular professionals. The overall conditions for women's professionals were, in comparison to regular professionals (de facto male professionals), not as favorable despite the boost in fan support and increased media coverage that the JSA and professional shogi in general received due to the popularity of a number of young strong women's professionals, such as Naoko Hayashiba, and Ichiyo Shimizu, who started appearing in the 1980s. The JSA did establish a voluntary association called the (LPPG) in 1989 for women's professionals in response to a successful event organized by women professionals to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the women's professional system and the overall popularity of women's professionals among shogi fans, but it operated within the JSA. Dissatisfaction with the status quo grew over the years as the number of women's professionals increased, and by 2006 some women's professionals felt that the system needed to be changed.