The Lottery in Japan

The lottery games Japan runs

Japan's lottery world splits into two families. The first is takarakuji, the general public lottery run by prefectures and designated cities, which covers the big seasonal Jumbo draws, scratch cards (Scratch, with first prizes from JPY 50,000 up to JPY 100 million depending on the edition), and the weekly number-selection games². The second is the sports promotion lottery, run under the Sports Promotion Voting Law, which covers toto, BIG, WINNER and DUNK and pays out around half of sales as prizes⁵.

Takarakuji tickets are sold at bank counters, dedicated lottery booths in shopping streets and stations, tobacco shops, liquor shops, supermarkets, station kiosks, post offices in areas without booths, and some bank ATMs¹. Booth opening hours differ from place to place, so check the booth map on the official site for the hours of the one nearest you⁶.

The Jumbo draws are the headline events. These are the classic paper lotteries with pre-printed serial numbers, released in seasonal editions such as the Summer Jumbo, Halloween Jumbo and Year-End Jumbo. Ticket numbers are limited, and once an edition sells out, even before the official sales end date, no more can be bought⁷. A Year-End Jumbo draw, for example, paid a 4th prize of JPY 100,000, and a recent Halloween Jumbo offered a 6th prize of JPY 300 across 12 million winning tickets⁷. You can check Jumbo tickets at lottery sales offices in every prefecture and the 20 designated cities nationwide³.

For the full picture of the classic paper lotteries, including Jumbo and scratch cards, see takarakuji, the Japanese public lotteries.

Number-selection lotteries: Loto 7, Loto 6, Mini Loto, Numbers and Bingo 5

The number games are where most regular players spend their time, because they draw weekly and can be bought all year round.

Loto 7 is the biggest. You pick seven different numbers from 1 to 37, and the draw decides seven main numbers plus two bonus numbers⁸. A ticket costs JPY 300 per entry⁸. Match all seven main numbers for the first prize, six main plus one bonus for second, and so on down to three main numbers plus one or two bonus numbers for the sixth prize⁹.

Loto 6 costs JPY 200 per entry and asks for six different numbers from 1 to 43¹⁰. Draws are held every Monday and Thursday². The fifth prize, for matching three numbers, is a fixed JPY 1,000¹⁰.

Mini Loto is the entry-level game: JPY 200 per entry, five different numbers from 1 to 31¹. Its first prize is theoretically about JPY 10 million².

Numbers 3 and Numbers 4 ask for three or four digits respectively. In Numbers 4, a straight bet (matching all four digits in order) pays about JPY 1,000,000, with a theoretical value of JPY 900,000².

Bingo 5 works differently. You get a 3x3 grid with a FREE square in the center, and in each of the other eight squares you pick one number from the five listed, for eight numbers in total¹². An entry costs JPY 200¹. Draws are held in principle at the Tokyo Takarakuji Dream Hall, with limited periods at the Osaka Takarakuji Dream Hall, and are streamed live online¹³.

All five games can be bought at lottery booths, online, at some bank ATMs and at some convenience stores, and all are eligible for continuous purchase, where the site buys your numbers automatically at a set frequency⁸.

Each game has its own in-depth page: Loto 7, Loto 6, Mini Loto, Numbers 3 and Numbers 4 and Bingo 5.

Prizes and odds by game

Here is what each number game pays at each prize level, using the official theoretical values, and the odds where the official rules give them.

A few notes on reading this. Theoretical values are what the prize works out to at average sales and an average number of winners; actual payouts move up and down with both. Loto 7's third prize figure of about JPY 728,000 reflects the odds of 196 in 10,295,472 under the rules before the February 2025 change¹⁵. Loto 6's first prize of JPY 200 million is the standard cap; with a carryover it can reach JPY 600 million¹⁰.

For the sports lottery, prize levels work differently, and recent draws show the scale. In the 1,650th BIG draw announced on September 8, 2026, the 4th prize paid JPY 7,050 across 1,330 winning entries and the 6th prize paid JPY 540 across 27,768 entries¹⁷. The 1,646th BIG draw paid a 4th prize of JPY 7,590 and a 5th prize of JPY 1,320¹⁸.

Prize caps and carryovers

Every game has a ceiling on the first prize, and most of them can exceed it when money carries over from a draw with no winner.

• Loto 7: JPY 700 million normally, JPY 1.2 billion with a carryover. Before February 2017 the caps were JPY 400 million and JPY 800 million⁸.
• Loto 6: JPY 200 million normally, JPY 600 million with a carryover¹⁰.
• Mini Loto: capped at JPY 100 million, which is 500,000 times the face value of a ticket. Before March 2012 the cap was JPY 40 million¹.
• Numbers 3 and Numbers 4: both capped at JPY 50 million, raised from JPY 20 million in March 2012¹.
• toto: JPY 100 million normally, JPY 500 million with a carryover¹⁹.
• BIG: normally a maximum first prize of JPY 300 million, rising to JPY 600 million with a carryover, excluding special editions²⁰. The 12-match BIG edition runs to JPY 700 million without a carryover and JPY 1.2 billion with one²⁰.
• mini toto, totoGOAL2 and totoGOAL3: each capped at JPY 100 million, or JPY 200 million with a carryover¹⁴.

Carryovers are why jackpots sometimes make the news: when nobody wins the top tier for several draws, the pool rolls forward and the advertised first prize climbs toward the cap.

Sports lottery: toto, BIG, WINNER and DUNK

The sports lottery divides into four products, all run under the Sports Promotion Voting Law⁵.

toto is the original: you predict the results (home win, draw or away win) of a set of designated football matches. An entry costs JPY 100, and you fill in your predictions on a marksheet at the shop, hand it to the staff and receive your ticket¹⁹. The 13-match toto pays a first prize of up to JPY 100 million, or JPY 500 million with a carryover¹⁹. mini toto, covering fewer matches, pays a first prize of about JPY 100,000 in its 3-match form¹⁹.

BIG is toto without the work. A computer randomly selects the results of the designated matches for you, so no prediction is needed⁵. The main BIG costs JPY 300 per entry for 14 matches, with 50 percent of sales paid out as prizes²⁰. Variants include the 12-match BIG at JPY 300, the 11-match BIG at JPY 200, a 12-match total-goals version at JPY 100, BIG1000 with a first prize of about JPY 10 million, and mini BIG at about JPY 1 million²⁰.

WINNER covers both single-match prediction, on football and basketball results, and competition prediction, on league and tournament outcomes such as the J-League title⁵. A single-match entry costs JPY 200²³. Competition prediction products, such as J-League and B.LEAGUE champion prediction, are not sold at lottery counters and are online only²⁴.

DUNK is the basketball version of BIG: the computer randomly picks basketball match results and you do not predict anything⁵.

Special editions appear around big events. For the 2026 World Cup, a Japan team outcome prediction product asked buyers to pick Japan's final result from 14 options, with a championship win paying at odds of 10.2 times²⁷.

For the full guide to this family, see sports lottery: toto, BIG and WINNER, and the individual pages on toto, BIG and MEGA BIG, WINNER and DUNK.

How and where to buy tickets

In person. Takarakuji booths are the classic venue, and the number games are also sold at some bank ATMs and some convenience stores¹¹. For sports lottery, look for the sports lottery logo: toto and BIG are sold at sports lottery retail kiosks, which include some regular takarakuji booths, and cannot be reserved or bought online from the official toto site itself²². At Lawson and Ministop, WINNER competition products are bought by reading a QR code at the Loppi terminal and presenting the printed application slip at the register, or by number input; at FamilyMart and Seven-Eleven you present a barcode at the register²⁴.

Online. The official Takarakuji site sells the Jumbo lotteries, Loto, Bingo 5, Numbers and Quick One, 24 hours a day and in principle all year round³⁰. To register you need member information, a payment method for buying tickets and a bank account for receiving winnings, all in your own name⁴. Payment is by credit card or carrier billing, and you can also use Takarakuji points or held prize money³¹. You earn 1 point per JPY 100 spent, usable both on the site and at booths³¹. Continuous purchase is available for the Jumbo lotteries, all three Loto games, Bingo 5 and Numbers, and you can reserve Jumbo tickets before sales open; tickets reserved in advance are charged on the sale start date¹⁴. Ordinary lottery tickets such as Jumbo can be bought online from the reservation start date until 23:50 on the sales end date³³.

Online purchase is limited to individual residents of Japan aged 20 or over, and buying from outside Japan is not possible, including temporarily while traveling abroad²⁵. Jumbo lotteries can also be ordered by mail from Mizuho Bank, sending payment, a return envelope and an application form¹.

For the sports lottery online, see buying toto and BIG online.

Claiming prizes and what documents you need

How you collect depends on how much you won and where you bought the ticket.

Takarakuji bought at a booth or convenience store. Winnings up to JPY 10,000 can be paid at sales outlets, and outlets displaying a JPY 50,000 or JPY 100,000 mark pay up to that amount¹. For a ticket over JPY 10,000, write your address and name in the space on the ticket; from JPY 500,000 you also need identity documents, and over JPY 1 million a personal seal¹. Loto 7 has its own rule: prizes over JPY 2 million per winning entry require proof of identity such as a driver's license⁹. Winnings are collected at a lottery stand or Mizuho Bank depending on the amount³⁴.

Sports lottery bought at a shop. Bring the winning ticket plus an identity document such as a driver's license or My Number card³⁵. Winnings of JPY 100,000 or less per ticket are paid in cash on the spot at credit unions handling the sports lottery, at refund-capable lottery booths (some have limits of JPY 10,000 or JPY 50,000), and at Seven-Eleven, whose payout limit is JPY 15,000³⁷. Over JPY 100,000, go to a credit union; over JPY 500,000 the credit union procedure pays cash after 12 business days or by bank transfer, with a transfer fee of JPY 50 for Japan Post Bank or JPY 154 for other banks³⁷. If you specify a Japan Post Bank account you will need the 5-digit passbook sign and 8-digit passbook number³⁸. DUNK winnings of JPY 100,000 or less are paid in cash at handling credit unions and some booths³⁹.

Bought online or by ATM. Prizes are transferred automatically to your registered account, with no ticket to present³¹. For number-selection lotteries bought by ATM or net banking, prizes are transferred to the purchase account two business days after the draw¹.

Tax. Takarakuji and sports lottery winnings are tax exempt: no income tax, no resident tax and no tax return required¹. That covers Loto 7 as well, because Article 13 of the Act on Public Lottery Tickets places all takarakuji prize money outside income tax, so a JPY 1.2 billion Loto 7 prize is handed over in full²¹. Sports promotion lottery payouts, including toto, BIG and MEGA BIG, are likewise exempt under Article 16 of the Act on the Implementation of Sports Promotion Voting²¹. For scale, a JPY 100 million taxable prize would lose JPY 16.9 million in income tax and JPY 4.93 million in resident tax, leaving JPY 78.17 million²¹. See tax on gambling winnings in Japan for the wider picture.

Where to go next

If one game caught your eye, the in-depth pages are the place to go: Loto 7 for the biggest jackpots, Loto 6 for the twice-weekly draws, Mini Loto for the cheapest entry, Numbers 3 and Numbers 4 for digit games, and Bingo 5 for the grid format. For the paper lotteries, start with takarakuji, the Japanese public lotteries, and for football and basketball, sports lottery: toto, BIG and WINNER plus the pages on toto, BIG, WINNER and DUNK. To see how the lottery fits into the wider scene, see gambling in Japan.