Japan's gold medal-winning women's pursuit team on Sunday credited coach Johan de Wit for the country's impressive showing in middle to long distance speed skating events at the Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Japan failed to win a single speed skating medal at the Sochi Olympics four years ago, but its fortunes, on the women's side at least, have been transformed by de Wit since the Dutchman was hired by the Japan Skating Federation in 2015.

This season, the pursuit team of sisters Miho and Nana Takagi, Ayaka Kikuchi and Ayano Sato broke the world record at a World Cup event in November, and they have since rewritten it twice.

The team outpaced speed skating powerhouse the Netherlands in Pyeongchang in an Olympic record time in the final on Wednesday.

"Since Johan came to Japan, the thing that has changed in me most and what I have learned from him is to enjoy speed skating again," Kikuchi told a press conference on Sunday.

"Until now, I hadn't skated like my normal self because I was too obsessed with the idea that as long as I am competing, I have to aim for victory. I realized I had forgotten the joy of speed skating."

"Johan reminded me of that when I was struggling, told me that the reason I was a speed skater was because I love it so much."

In other events, all-rounder Miho Takagi, who failed to qualify for Sochi but has been in sparkling form this season, won silver in the women's 1,500 meters and bronze in the 1,000.

Her elder sister Nana then stole her thunder with victory in the inaugural women's mass start on Saturday night.

Nana, along with sprinter Nao Kodaira who won the 500 gold and 1,000 silver, has spent time training in the Netherlands. She said de Wit's ability to combine the best of both Dutch and Japanese training methods has proved to be a winning formula.

"I could practice in the Netherlands in a way that I hadn't been able to in Japan and learned a great deal," said Nana, the first Japanese athlete to finish a Winter Games with two gold medals since ski jumper Kazuyoshi Funaki did the same at the 1998 Nagano Olympics in Japan.

"Johan took the positive aspects of Japanese training and combined it with the strengths of the Dutch way of doing things, and this (success) is the result. We are moving in the right direction."

The women's success was in stark contrast to that of the Japanese men, who failed to reach the podium in any of the distances.

The pursuit team was fifth as were Takuro Oda in the men's 1,000 and 1,500 and Daichi Yamanaka in the 500.

Asked why Japan's men have underperformed, Robin Derks, who came to Japan initially as an assistant to de Wit but works as a coach with the sprinters, said, "It's a very good question and we ask ourselves too, sometimes."

"Sprint is no problem. There are 15 people who can win. It could be 1-2-3 Japan but it could also be 10-15-20 Japan. I think Japan in the sprint in the future will be the best country again if we see the potential with the times that were skated this year," he said.

"But with the ladies you see young skaters that can improve very fast. With the men, all Olympic champions are like 28, 29, 30 years old and our skaters just started with professional training and it is almost impossible in three years. Men just need more training time."