The Japanese ice dancing duo of Kana Muramoto and Chris Reed placed 15th in the short dance Monday to qualify for the free dance at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
While the Canadian pair of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took the lead with 83.67 points, Muramoto and Reed, who are competing in their third season together, earned a score of 63.41 points for their routine to "Cha Cha, Rhumba, Samba" at the Gangneung Ice Arena.
"I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I'm really happy that we were able to put on a satisfying performance. We achieved our goal of advancing to the free (dance)," Muramoto said.
Min Yura and America-born Alexander Gamelin represented host South Korea and also advanced by finishing 16th.
In the two-segment ice dance, 20 of the 24 couples advance to Tuesday's free dance, where the scores from the two days are combined to determine the overall winner.
Japan's best Olympic performance in ice dance is a 15th place finish by Nozomi Watanabe and Akiyuki Kido at the 2006 Turin Games.
More on the Winter Olympics:
Olympics: Canadian skating pair Virtue and Moir win ice dance gold
Olympics: Pyeongchang silver medal no big deal for "Pocket Rocket" Uno
Olympics: As promised, Hanyu steals Olympic show with gold
Olympics: Germany's Savchenko and Massot rally to win pairs gold
Olympics: Crowdfunding helps Yee make Malaysian figure skating history
