Kurita Yoshiki is a very strong amateur in Japan. I saw his name few times and today he won again against a 8p. In korea I saw a lot of yunguseng (insei) wining against some pros (some of my friend were insei in Korea), in China it is also quite normal these days but in Japan it is the first time (for me, I guess it happened in the past).
http://www.go4go.net/go/games/byplayer/2213 here some of his games
https://gotoeveryone.k2ss.info/news/jp/kisei/45/ and here the league C of the kisei. He won again today.
When I was in korea I saw the korean kiwon make a new points system, if the amateur gets 100 points he can become pro. Some of my friends got 30 or 40 points and it was very hard. Is there anyone who knows about a possible way to become pro like that in Japan, maybe just by recommendation.

I think that Sakai Hideyuki was accepted as professional by Kansai Kiin in his 20's.

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12k: 2015.08.11; 11k: 2015.09.13; 10k: 2015.09.27; 9k: 2015.10.10; 8k: 2015.11.08; 7k: 2016.07.10 6k: 2016.07.24 5k: 2018.05.14 4k: 2018.09.03 3k: who knows?

I think I once saw a way, but my brain refuses to recall it properly. Nakamura Sumire got her shodan by recommendation, so we know it's possible.

Incidentally, if I read the EGF rules properly, it also allows for professional status through winning enough points in tournaments.

Take care.

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一碁一会

It's impressive, of course, but not quite new, even for him. He beat a 5-dan (Matsubara Taisei) in the Agon-Kiriyama in 2017, and other amateurs have made a showing there. Nakazono Seizo and Kikuchi Yasuro, also got a couple of scalps when the Meijin was opened to amateurs in 1999. But they are the old guard. Kurita and Ozeki Minoru seem to have become the two main rivals in the Japanese amateur camp over the past two or three years. Both are quite young so have time to get even better.

But so far Ozeki seems to have the edge. He beat Kurita in both the Amateur Meijin and Amateur Honinbo finals last year (Kurita had to make do with the Students Honinbo title, which is minus Ozeki, who is now 25). On top of that, Ozeki has just beaten Shibano Toramaru in his reward game for winning the Meijin. Taking Black and with Shibano giving 6.6 komi, he won by a whopping 11.5 points. Ozeki had, however, lost to Shibano a couple of times before when they were both inseis.

Kurita Yoshiki did beat Shibano Toramaru (giving 6.5 komi) by 12.5 points in the 2nd round of the 2019 Mixed pro-ama tournament. But then lost to Kyo Kagen in the 3rd round.

Today I saw the Kisei C league chart in gotoeveryone, and I find an amateur, Kurita Yoshiki.

I am surprised for two reasons.

First, that an amateur can (ability wise) make it to this league. I have already read here that he is quite strong, and a former insei.

Second, that an amateur can (status wise) make it to this league. I thought that the Kisei (like all other pro tournaments, restrictions aside) were open to all pro players, and only pro players. But I must be wrong. How can an amateur qualify? Is there some special wild card?

Sakai Hideyuki won the WAGC and became an official professional starting at rank 5p after winning all four games of a test match, two games against a 5p and two against a 7p. Prior to becoming a pro he was training to be a medical doctor. Interestingly, he retired from professional go in 2019 to return to medicine.