Through family contacts, the federation recruited Yard, then Chie Chie Sakuma, who played for Brown from 1990-94 while earning dual degrees in anthropology and business management.
Kuwabara was in the Montreal Canadiens system when Japan came calling. The Canadiens selected the right wing in the second round (No. 39) of the 1990 NHL Draft and later assigned him to Fredericton of the American Hockey League, where he had 23 points (13 goals, 10 assists) in 54 games from 1992-94.
He had 240 points (107 goals, 133 assists) in 196 games with Ottawa of the OHL from 1989-92.
"Growing up a Japanese Canadian, it was always, 'Wow, that'd be that'd be pretty cool to be able to go over to Japan' just to see it first," Kuwabara said. "I didn't know they had high-level hockey at the time when I was thinking about it.
"Then the opportunity presented itself, and it was the right fit at the right time for me. I was ready to try something different and one of my goals was to eventually, maybe try to play in the Olympics at some point, whether it was for Canada or Japan."
Larsson was recruited from Leksands, Sweden, and Verdun of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Like most young Sweden-born hockey players, he dreamed of playing for the country's vaunted national team.
"But it's pretty tough for us to crack, so I looked at playing for Japan as another great opportunity," said Larsson, who was known as Shin Yahata in Japan.
The opportunity meant he, Kuwabara and Yard had to move to Japan around 1994 to establish citizenship while playing for the national and local teams.