The Japan Skating Federation, unhappy with the ISU's new judging system, could lose the Grand Prix sanction for its showcase event, the NHK Trophy.
The International Skating Union's executive council voted last month to test a new high-tech, computer-based scoring system during the 2003 Grand Prix series.
The Japanese federation believes it is being forced to use a method that has not been fully approved by the ISU membership.
"It's not the system itself, but the way it was introduced that we object to," said Nagahisa Ono, chairman of the Japan Figure Skating Committee at the Japan Skating Federation. "It was introduced as a project and we don't feel it should be used in official competitions because it is not in the rule book."
Instead, the Japanese prefer to use the interim 6.0 system used last season, or even the long-standing method in which all judges are identified and their marks all count.