As a retired band director, I was always interested in listening to a variety of these young Japanese students playing at a high level (always memorized), and wondering how many hours a day/week they rehearsed at the expense of other activities/studies. Our school had a visiting orchestra play for our students, and I had the opportunity to chat with a couple of them. They brought a gift of a recording of the piece they played. I asked them what other music (such as sight-reading), they played at school, and the answer was, "Nothing. We practise only this one piece all year. to make it perfect and to win the championship."