Midori City Boat Race

Where each venue is and who runs it

Japan has 24 boat race venues, running from Kiryu in the north down to Omura in the south⁶. Each one is a public operation run by the local government of the city or prefecture that hosts it, which is why the four venues grouped here sit under different local authorities even though the betting product is the same everywhere.

Boat Race Kiryu is the one tied to Midori City. Its address is 2887 Azami, Kasakake-cho, Midori City, Gunma Prefecture, postal code 379-2311, in the Kanto region⁷. It is a night-race venue, and one off-course ticket shop in the region sells Kiryu's night races as its main product alongside night races from other tracks nationwide⁸.

Boat Race Toda is at 8-22 Toda Park, Toda City, Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo⁹. The stadium publishes access directions in Chinese on its own site, so you can check the walk from the station before you set out⁹.

Boat Race Edogawa is at 3-1-1 Higashikomatsugawa, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo, postal code 132-0033¹⁰. It sits in Tokyo's traditional downtown, a short distance from Asakusa and Ryogoku, and it is the only track in Japan where the races take place on a river, with the boats running against the current¹⁰. If you want a comfortable seat, the Miyabi area has reclining seats, pair seats and private rooms¹⁰.

Boat Race Tamagawa is at 4-11 Koremasa, Fuchu City, Tokyo Metropolis, postal code 183-0014, in western Tokyo¹¹. The venue publishes its access details on its own website¹¹.

All four are day-trip venues from Tokyo or, in Kiryu's case, an easy run from the northern Kanto. If you are new to the sport, the boat racing guide for Japan covers the basics, and there are separate pages for Boat Race Heiwajima and Boat Race Suminoe if you want to compare venues.

How betting at the counter works

The mechanics are the same at every venue, and they are simpler than they look.

1. Buy a race card or pick up a mark card. A mark card lists all 24 venues, and you fill in which venue's races you are betting on¹².
2. Choose your race. There are 12 races in a day, and each race has six boats¹.
3. Fill in your bet. The mark card uses three units: hundreds of yen, thousands of yen and ten-thousands of yen. Writing 10 and 2 means 12¹².
4. Pay at the window and take your ticket. Tickets can be bought until the deadline, and the race starts at least a few minutes later, which gives you time to find a seat¹.
5. Watch, then collect if you win.

The minimum is JPY 100 for any of the seven ticket types, so you can try a race for the price of a coffee³. Payouts are in yen¹³. If you would rather not bet at all, you can still come to any venue in Japan to watch the races, eat and look around the other attractions¹.

One practical rule worth knowing: buy only at the official windows or by telephone betting. Unauthorized bookmaking and ticket agencies are prohibited by law, and the official windows are the only place a ticket is guaranteed to be honored⁴.

Off-course ticket shops

You do not have to go to the track. Off-course ticket shops sell boat race tickets in cities and towns across the country, and they are often the easiest option if you are staying somewhere without a venue nearby.

A typical ticket shop sells races from several venues at once. One shop in the Kanto region, for example, sells night races from around the country every day with Kiryu as its main product, plus races from Hamanako, the big SG and premium G1 meetings, and the Kanto-area venues⁸. That means a single small shop can give you a full afternoon or evening of racing from several tracks.

Ticket shops also run promotions, and past examples include the draws below.

These are shop-level events rather than a permanent feature, so ask at the counter what is running.

For a wider picture of where tickets are sold away from the tracks, see the off-course betting guide for Japan.

Race formats and ticket types

Every race has six boats, and there are seven ticket types². All seven can be bought from JPY 100³.

The two-part system is worth understanding before you fill in a card. A rotation combination fixes the first or second boat and fills all the remaining places as third. A multiple combination lets you pick three boats and bet on all their permutations¹⁷. The first is cheaper and more targeted; the second covers more outcomes for the same three picks.

Venues also vary in how they structure a meeting. At Edogawa, some meetings run a two semi-final system, where the top three finishers in each of the 11R and 12R advance to the final day's winner race regardless of what happened earlier in the week¹⁸. On the fifth day of that meeting, the semi-final members racing in 11R and 12R also raced 6R and 7R with exactly the same lineup and the same lane numbers, so you could watch the same boats twice before the final¹⁸.

If you want to understand how to read the form before you bet, the official guide to making predictions walks through it.

Prizes and payouts

The payout on a winning ticket depends on the odds, which are set by how the money is bet. As a worked example from the official guide: a Trio bet on the sixth race at Suminoe in Osaka, with boats 1, 2 and 4, had a 1 in 20 chance of winning and odds of 15.3¹. A JPY 100 ticket at those odds pays out at the odds shown on the board.

Collecting is straightforward. There are machines all over the venue that let you collect your prize money on the spot¹. Payouts are in yen¹³.

If you are holding a ticket bought somewhere other than the venue you are standing in, the process can take longer. At Himeji Racecourse, for example, tickets issued at Sonoda, Himeji, the Kobe off-course sales office, DASH Yokawa and DASH Wakayama are handled directly, while tickets issued in other districts, or from Kanazawa, Kasamatsu, Fukuyama and Kochi, take extra time to verify and the off-course payout office asks you to contact them in advance¹⁹. The same principle applies to boat race tickets bought at a different shop: ask staff at the counter before you assume it can be paid out on the spot.

Rules visitors should know before betting

Age. You need to be 20 or over to bet. This applies to everyone, citizens, foreign residents and visitors alike.

ID. Bring your passport or residence card. You will not need it for a JPY 100 bet at the window, but you will want it if you are asked to verify your age, and it is the document that settles any question at the counter.

Where to buy. Official windows at the venue, official ticket shops, or telephone betting. Nothing else⁴.

Language. The official boat race site publishes guides in Chinese and Korean as well as Japanese and English, so you can read the rules in your own language before you go²⁰.

Timing. Tickets can be bought up to the deadline, and the race starts at least a few minutes after that¹. If you are new, buy early in the day when the windows are quiet, watch a race or two without betting, then place your first JPY 100 ticket.

What it costs. JPY 100 minimum per ticket, any of the seven types³. There is no entry fee mentioned for watching, and you can spend a full day at a venue without betting at all¹.

Night racing. Seven venues nationwide stage night races, and Kiryu is one of them⁵. If you want an evening at the track rather than an afternoon, that is the one to pick from this group.

What is coming. A new off-site ticket sales office for Boat Race Marugame was under construction as a new base for selling boat tickets, with completion planned for the end of fiscal year 2025²². That is a Marugame project rather than one of these four venues, but it shows how the off-course network keeps expanding.

If you are planning a broader gambling trip, the Japan gambling overview sets out what else is legal, and there are separate guides to horse racing in Japan, local horse racing and keirin.