The Ski Association of Japan's qualifying period for male ski jumpers concluded at the World Cup event in Austrian town Bischofshofen on Saturday (January 6), when Kasai finished 48th. 

According to The Japan Times, the Association have ruled that he has done enough to earn a berth at Pyeongchang 2018, where the 45-year-old will make history if he competes.

At Sochi 2014, Kasai and Russian luger Albert Demchenko became the first athletes to compete in seven Winter Olympics.

Demchenko has been banned for life from the Olympic Games and was stripped of his Sochi 2014 men’s singles and mixed team silver medals after being implicated in the Russian doping scandal.

"My current goal is to win the gold medal at Pyeongchang," Kasai said in 2015, according to The Japan Times.

"When I reached 40, I decided I would call it quits when I turned 50.

"But now Sapporo, my birthplace, is [potentially] bidding for the 2026 Games.

"I will be 54 by that time, but it is too big a chance to give up."

Kasai made his Olympic debut at Albertville 1992 and has competed at every edition since.

He won the individual large hill silver medal and team large hill bronze at Sochi 2014.

This came two decades after he claimed his first Olympic medal with team large hill silver at Lillehammer 1994.

Kasai made his World Cup debut in 1988 in Sapporo.

He has 17 individual World Cup victories to his name and has made the podium 63 times.

Furthermore, he triumphed at the 1992 Ski Flying World Championships in Czech town Harrachov.

The full Japanese men’s ski jumping squad for Pyeongchang 2018 is due to be announced on Thursday (January 11).

Among the others expected to be named is Junshirō Kobayashi and brother Ryōyū.

Daiki Ito and Taku Takeuchi are also likely to make the cut.