Horse Racing in Japan

Horse racing in Japan: what is on offer and where

Horse racing in Japan, called keiba, fills 10 JRA racecourses from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south, plus a nationwide network of 38 off-course betting facilities called "WINS"¹. Betting runs through official channels and is fully legal.

On top of the central JRA circuit there is a parallel world of local racing, run by prefectures and cities at tracks such as Tokyo City Keiba (Oi), Funabashi, Kanazawa and Kasamatsu. Between the two systems you are rarely far from a race meeting or a betting shop anywhere in Japan.

A standard racing day runs 12 races, usually from late morning or mid-afternoon into the evening at tracks that hold night racing³. The biggest days, such as the Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse, draw tens of thousands of spectators and are major social events, with many attendees dressing up.

Two racing worlds: JRA central racing and local chiho keiba

Japanese horse racing is split into two systems. Central racing is run by the Japan Racing Association (JRA), which owns the ten major racecourses: Tokyo, Nakayama, Kyoto, Hanshin, Chukyo, Sapporo, Hakodate, Fukushima, Niigata and Kokura. Local racing, known as chiho keiba and organized under the NAR, is run by regional governments at their own tracks².

The two systems have separate horses, jockeys and calendars, but they overlap in betting. JRA betting tickets are sold at many local venues and off-course shops, and local racing can be bet online through services such as Odds Park, where you can buy tickets and watch the races⁷.

Local racing has its own character. Tokyo City Keiba at Oi, in the heart of Tokyo, was the very first racetrack in Japan to host night racing, and its January through March meetings run in the daytime while the rest of the year features evening cards under the lights⁸. Tracks like Kasamatsu in Gifu, Funabashi in Chiba and Kanazawa in Ishikawa are smaller and more relaxed than the JRA giants, with admission and seating to match⁹. If you want the full picture of the local circuit, see local horse racing (chiho keiba).

Bet types: from win and place to WIN5

JRA currently offers nine bet types: win, place, bracket quinella, horse number quinella, wide, exacta, trio, trifecta and WIN5⁵. In Japanese these are tan-sho, fuku-sho, waku-ren, uma-ren, wide, uma-tan, 3-ren-fuku, 3-rentan and WIN5⁵.

The basics are simple. A win bet (tan-sho) pays if your horse finishes first. A place bet (fuku-sho) pays if your horse finishes in the top two, or top three in races with eight or more starters. From there the bets get more complex: the quinella pays for two horses in any order, the exacta requires the correct order, the trio covers three horses in any order, and the trifecta requires all three in exact order⁵.

WIN5 is the hardest and can pay the most: you must pick the winner of all five races designated by JRA on a card¹¹. The target races are chosen by JRA, and one ticket costs the same 100 yen unit as everything else.

Which bet types are actually sold depends on the field size¹²:

Local racing sells a slightly different menu. Hokkaido racing, for example, offers win, place, bracket quinella, quinella, wide, trio and trifecta¹³. For a full walkthrough of every ticket, how to mark a betting card and how to read the form, see Japanese horse racing bet types.

What betting tickets pay out

All Japanese horse racing betting is pari-mutuel: the pool is shared among winners, so payouts depend on how many people backed the same horse. The law requires that not less than 70 percent of turnover is paid back to holders of winning tickets⁶.

Bets are sold in units. At local tracks such as Kanazawa, one ticket is 100 yen and you buy integer multiples of it¹². The legal minimum face value for a JRA ticket is 10 yen, used for some multi-horse combination bets⁶.

Odds work as a direct multiplier. If the odds for horse No. 2 are 1.9, a bet of 100 yen pays out 190 yen¹. Payouts are shown on the boards and screens around the track, and winning tickets are cashed at payout machines or counters.

One quirk worth knowing: when a win or place payout would otherwise fall below 100 yen per 100 yen bet, JRA tops it up to 110 yen under its "JRA Plus 10" scheme, so a winning favorite never returns less than a small profit⁵.

Entry levies and what a day at the track costs

A day at Japanese racing is remarkably cheap to enter. Admission to a JRA racecourse is 200 yen (about $2 US) for Tokyo, Nakayama, Kyoto, Hanshin and Chukyo, and 100 yen for Sapporo, Hakodate, Fukushima, Niigata and Kokura³. The regulations allow the JRA president to set levies anywhere from 100 yen to 5,000 yen per person per day, so big race days with special enclosure access can cost more¹⁴.

At local tracks the same pattern holds. Kasamatsu Racecourse charges 500 yen for its U Hall and 600 yen for special seating on its own race days⁹. Inside, food stalls, restaurants and beer gardens sell at normal Japanese prices, and a modest day out is easy to manage.

Gates open well before the first race. At Tokyo City Keiba, gates open between 13:00 and 15:00 depending on the meeting, with first post between 14:00 and 15:30 on afternoon cards and the main race around 20:10 on twilight cards¹⁵. The track offers free Wi-Fi (SSID "TCK Free Wi-Fi", password 5501, no registration needed), a beginners' counter on the 1st floor of the L-WING, and a general service counter on the 1st floor of the G-Front⁸.

Getting to Oi is easy: it is a 10-minute drive from Haneda Airport, a 2-minute walk from Oi Keibajo Mae station on the Tokyo Monorail, or a 12-minute walk from Tachiaigawa station on the Keihin express line¹⁶. For the JRA tracks, Tokyo Racecourse is at 1-1 Hiyoshi-cho, Fuchu-shi, and Hakodate Racecourse is about 25 minutes by tram from JR Hakodate Station¹⁷.

Ban'ei racing: draft horse racing at Obihiro

Ban'ei racing is a sport found nowhere else: draft horses weighing from 800 to 1,200 kg compete by pulling a sled carrying a jockey and a prescribed heavy load over a 200-meter dirt track with two humps. It is held only in Hokkaido, at Obihiro Racecourse².

The horses are enormous Percheron-type breeds, and the racing is a slow, grinding test of strength rather than speed, as each horse hauls its sled over the two obstacles. It is a beloved local tradition with a devoted following.

Ban'ei race meetings can be bet on away from Obihiro too: J-PLACE Sapporo sells tickets for all ban'ei race meetings and all main races¹⁸. Obihiro Racecourse is at 9-1 Minami, Nishi-13-jo, Obihiro-shi¹⁰. For the full story of the sport, see ban'ei racing.

Big races and the racing calendar

The JRA calendar is built around its G1 races, and Tokyo Racecourse hosts more of them than anywhere else: the Japan Cup, the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), the Tenno Sho (Autumn), the Yasuda Kinen, the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks), the February Stakes, the NHK Mile Cup and the Victoria Mile¹⁹.

The summer circuit moves north. Hakodate Racecourse hosts the Hakodate Sprint Stakes, the Hakodate Kinen and the Hakodate Nisai Stakes, all G3 races, during its July meetings¹⁷.

Local racing has its own big days, graded on the Jpn scale. The NTV Cup at Hokkaido racing is a JpnIII race, and the February 2026 calendar shows meetings at Kasamatsu, Oi, Himeji, Kochi and Urawa running through the month, with JRA tickets sold alongside local races on many of those days²⁰. For the full list of championship races and when to see them, see major horse races in Japan, and for Japan's most famous international race, see the Japan Cup.

Betting online and by phone: JRA net betting and A-PAT

You do not need to go to a track. JRA telephone and internet betting has four forms of membership²:

• A-PAT (a dedicated bank account system)
• Soku-PAT (internet-based)
• JRA Direct
• ARS

A-PAT covers all races at all racecourses where central JRA racing is held, plus designated overseas races, and sells every bet type including WIN5²¹. The smartphone site's menu covers Pay-easy deposits, normal betting, odds betting, WIN5 betting, overseas racing and NAR local racing betting²². Accounts are funded by bank transfer to a JRA financial institution account, credit card transfer, or deduction from a stored-value identification card¹⁴. At the track or a betting shop you can pay with cash, a mark card or the UMACA card system²³.

One caution, said once and plainly: betting through channels other than those prescribed by the Horse Racing Act constitutes the crime of gambling under the Penal Code, and buying from overseas internet operators or malicious tipster businesses carries real legal risk, so buy only at official counters and official online services². For step-by-step setup of each service, see betting on Japanese horse racing online.

Off-track betting: J-PLACE, Aiba and WINS shops

If you cannot reach a racecourse, Japan's off-course network has you covered. JRA's 38 WINS betting offices are spread across the country². On top of these, J-PLACE venues sell JRA tickets from locations outside the traditional horse racing network, a service that began expanding in 2015²⁵.

Typical J-PLACE shops, such as DASH Fukuyama-Ekimae and DASH Yokawa, sell eight bet types: win, place, bracket quinella, quinella, wide, exacta, trio and trifecta, on both local racing days and JRA betting days²⁶. JRA win tickets are also sold at local racecourse venues: sales at the 16 Hokkaido venues began in March 2013, using the Local Horse Racing Totalisator System²⁸.

Note one practical rule: tickets for Hokkaido racing bought at a J-PLACE are refunded at JRA main offices (Ebisu and WINS) and some local WINS venues, not necessarily where you bought them¹³. In Hokkaido, the local off-course shops are called Aiba, such as Aiba Shizunai and Aiba Chitose¹⁰. For local racing away from the track, the Odds Park service lets you buy tickets and watch races online⁷.

Beyond horse racing: boat race, keirin and auto race venues

Horse racing is one of four public racing sports in Japan, alongside boat race (kyotei), keirin cycle racing and auto race. All four work the same way in principle: pari-mutuel betting at official venues, and all four welcome spectators who just want to watch.

Boat Race has 24 venues located across Japan, from Kiryu in Gunma down to Omura in Nagasaki, and seven special venues host night races²⁹. Six boats compete in each race, and betting tickets come in seven types, any of which can be bought from 100 yen³⁰. You can come to any Boat Race venue to watch the races, enjoy the food and check out the attractions without placing a single bet, and if you do win, machines all over the venue pay out prize money on the spot²⁹.

A few venues stand out for visitors:

For the full picture of the sport, see boat racing (kyotei) and boat race betting. Keirin velodromes, such as those covered in the Hakodate velodrome guide, and auto race tracks like those in Kawaguchi and other auto race cities, round out the same family of venue-based betting sports, each with its own page on this site.