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Sports Media · Japan

Top sports media in Japan

The outlets that cover sport in Japan — the sports press, the broadcasters, the agencies and the specialist titles.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026

These are the outlets that cover sport in Japan — the sports press, the broadcasters that hold or have held rights, the national news agency where it carries sport, and the specialist titles of national standing. Single-sport titles without national standing are not listed here; they appear on the media list for their own sport.

How this list is ordered. By role and national standing — the sports press first, then the broadcasters that hold or have held rights, then the national news agency and the specialist titles. That order is set once and stays put, so a page that has been cited does not rearrange itself later. The Tranco figure against each outlet is shown for reference and does not set the order. Tranco is a research ranking of web domains that averages the Chrome User Experience Report, Cloudflare Radar, Majestic, Cisco Umbrella and Farsight over the preceding 30 days, on the list of September 2026. It ranks a whole domain, not a sports desk. A general daily's rank counts every reader it has, most of whom did not come for sport, so a national newspaper will sit above a dedicated sports title that has more sports readers than it does.

1. NHKBroadcaster · Television · Tranco 2,733 — Japan's public broadcaster, funded by receiving fees, which carries the six grand sumo tournaments in full and holds Japanese Olympic rights from 2026 to 2032 as half of the Japan Consortium. 2. Nikkan SportsGeneral sports coverage · Newspaper · Tranco 1,386 — Japan's first sports daily, founded in 1946 — the deepest daily record of Japanese baseball, sumo and horse racing anywhere. 3. Sports NipponGeneral sports coverage · Newspaper · Tranco 6,933 — National sports daily founded in Osaka in 1949, published by Sports Nippon Newspapers within Mainichi Shimbun Group Holdings, and known by the abbreviation Sponichi. 4. Sports HochiGeneral sports coverage · Newspaper · Tranco 8,137 — National sports daily published by Hochi Shimbun, a Yomiuri group company; the paper dates from 1872 and has been a morning sports title since 1949. 5. Sankei SportsGeneral sports coverage · Newspaper · Tranco 7,313 — National sports daily published by The Sankei Shimbun, launched in Osaka in 1955 and in Tokyo in 1963; part of the Fujisankei Communications Group. 6. NumberGeneral sports coverage · Magazine · Tranco 10,141 — Sports Graphic Number, the fortnightly sports magazine published by Bungeishunju since April 1980, with a long-form website, Number Web, at number.bunshun.jp. 7. Daily SportsGeneral sports coverage · Newspaper · Tranco 7,839 — Sports daily founded in Kobe on 1 August 1948, published by Daily Sports Co. within the Kobe Shimbun group, and described by its parent as a nationally distributed paper that favours the Hanshin club. 8. Chunichi Sports and Tokyo Chunichi SportsGeneral sports coverage · Newspaper · Tranco 6,757 — The two sports dailies of The Chunichi Shimbun — Chunichi Sports in central Japan since 1954 and Tokyo Chunichi Sports in the Kanto region since 1970 — published online together as Chuspo. 9. The Japan TimesGeneral sports coverage · Newspaper · Tranco 4,272 — Japan's oldest English-language daily — and the standard English source of record for sumo, with a dedicated desk covering every honbasho.