How to Buy Grand Sumo Tickets | Release Dates, the Official English Site, Seat Types and Prices, and Resale Warnings

Overview

The Grand Sumo Tournaments are held six times a year, in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka. Each tournament lasts 15 days, and bouts take place every day from morning until evening. The information in this article was checked on October 14, 2026, on the websites of the Japan Sumo Association and of Ticket Oosumo, the association's official ticket sales site.

• Ticket release dates are set for each tournament. Tickets for popular days can sell out soon after they go on sale. Tickets for all days of the November 2026 tournament (Fukuoka) are sold out.
• The official ticket sales site is Ticket Oosumo. With its English version, Ticket Oosumo English, you can buy tickets from outside Japan too.
• With one ticket, you can watch all the bouts of that day, from morning until evening.
• If you bought your ticket on a resale site, you may be refused entry.

Booking

Schedules and release dates

These are the schedules announced by the Japan Sumo Association for the tournaments from November 2026 to November 2027. The general sale date is the day when the general public can start buying tickets.

• Before the general sale date, there is a period when tickets are sold by lottery (the advance lottery). The advance lottery includes a lottery for members of the Grand Sumo fan club, a lottery for members of Ticket Oosumo, and others. Seat types that sell out in the advance lottery are not sold on the general sale date.
• General sale for the November 2026 tournament started at 10:00 Japan time on the general sale date. As of October 14, 2026, the advance lottery schedule for the January 2027 tournament and the time when its general sale starts had not been announced.
• The sales announcement for the November 2026 tournament said that general sale on Ticket Oosumo (Japanese version) would continue until 17:00 on the day you go, as long as tickets were not sold out. All days of that tournament later sold out.
• Whether tickets are sold at the venue on the day itself is decided for each tournament. On days that sold out in advance sales, no same-day tickets are sold. For the November 2026 tournament, all days sold out in advance sales, so no same-day tickets will be sold.

Where to buy

Where to buy tickets

The Japan Sumo Association lists the following four ways to buy tickets.

1. Ticket Oosumo English: the English version of Ticket Oosumo. You can buy from outside Japan too.
2. Ticket Oosumo (Japanese version): the Japanese-language site.
3. 7-Eleven stores in Japan: you buy at a machine inside the store.
4. Phone: phone reservations for Ticket Oosumo. Japanese only.

Ticket Oosumo English

• The only payment method is credit card.
• A fee of ¥2,000 is charged per ticket. If you buy in the advance lottery, a separate fee of ¥550 (tax included) per ticket is also charged.
• You collect your tickets as paper tickets printed at a 7-Eleven store in Japan. How to collect them is explained on the screen when you finish your purchase and in an email.
• You cannot choose your seats yourself. You find out your seat numbers when you collect the tickets at 7-Eleven.
• Tickets you have bought cannot be changed or canceled for any reason.
• Some seat types are not sold on the English version. For the November 2026 tournament, Tamari (ringside) seats were sold only on the Japanese version. The Masu (box) seats at that tournament came in four classes, S, A, B, and C, and class S Masu seats were also sold only on the Japanese version.

For convenience stores in Japan, see What You Can Do at Japanese Convenience Stores | ATM Cash Withdrawals, Payment Methods, Sending Luggage.

Ticket Oosumo (Japanese version)

• To buy, you need to register as a member (free of charge) and verify your phone number. To verify your phone number, you call the number shown on the screen from your own phone. The official site does not say whether you can verify a phone number from outside Japan.
• The only payment method is credit card. You cannot pay unless your card is registered for "3D Secure 2.0", an identity verification system.
• The fees are a system fee of ¥275 (tax included) per ticket plus a fee that depends on how you receive your tickets. That fee is ¥165 (tax included) per ticket for paper tickets collected at 7-Eleven, and ¥110 (tax included) per ticket for QR code tickets displayed on your smartphone. Some seat types cannot be issued as QR code tickets.
• With a QR code ticket, you enter by displaying it on your smartphone screen. You cannot enter with a photo of the screen (screenshot) or with the QR code printed on paper.
• The Japanese version has an official "face-value resale" service, where people who can no longer go can put their tickets up for sale at face value. The English version does not have this service.

7-Eleven stores and phone

• At 7-Eleven stores in Japan, you can buy tickets at the multi-copy machine inside the store without registering as a member. You can pay with cash, credit card, or nanaco. Tickets are not sold at other convenience stores.
• Phone reservations are in Japanese only.

Prices

Seat types

The seats at the venue are divided into the following three types, starting from those closest to the ring.

1. Tamari seats: seats on the floor right beside the ring, where each person sits on their own cushion. Only people aged 16 or older can sit here. Eating and drinking at your seat and taking photos without permission are prohibited.
2. Masu seats: you take off your shoes and sit on cushions in a box, a square section of the floor divided by low railings. One box is counted as "1 Masu". The standard box is for 4 people. Some venues also have boxes for 2 people and other sizes. The English site calls them Box Seats.
3. Chair seats: seats with chairs on the higher tiers behind the Masu seats.

• Masu seats are sold by the box. The price is the per-person price multiplied by the number of people in that box. If you buy a box for 4 people, you get tickets for 4 people.
• Everyone who is 4 or older on the day you go, children included, needs their own ticket.

Prices in Tokyo (Ryogoku Kokugikan)

Tokyo prices change from the January 2027 tournament. The prices in the table are per person. Fees are charged in addition to the prices in the table.

• "Day 14 and the final day" means Day 14 and Day 15 of the 15-day tournament. On these two days, the prices in this column apply, whatever the day of the week.
• The letters SS, S, A, B, and C for Masu seats show where the seats are. From closest to the ring, the order is SS, S, A, B, C. Masu seats SS are the first and second rows from the ring, and Masu seats S are the third and fourth rows.
• In addition, there are chair seats D at the very back. For adults, they cost ¥3,000 (tax included), whatever the day of the week.
• Prices in Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka are different from those in Tokyo. Check the price list on the Japan Sumo Association's official website.

Conditions

Resold tickets and entry rules

• The association also says that it may refuse entry to people who obtained tickets in order to create tours or package trips not authorized by the association.
• If you lose your ticket or forget to bring it, you cannot enter.
• Even when 4 people use a Masu seat together, each of the 4 people enters with their own ticket.
• Bottles, cans, and cooler boxes cannot be brought into the venue. Bags may be checked at the entrance.

Step by step

What to expect on the day

• Bouts start in the morning with the lower-ranked wrestlers and move up the ranks in order. The ticket price is the same whatever time you enter.
• Approximate times from Day 1 to Day 12 (timetable for Tokyo and Fukuoka): the dohyo-iri (ring-entering ceremony), in which wrestlers of Juryo, the second-highest division, line up on the ring, is at around 14:15, and the dohyo-iri of wrestlers of Makuuchi, the highest division, is at around 15:40. The yumitori-shiki (bow-twirling ceremony), held after the day's bouts end, is at around 17:55.
• From Day 13 to Day 15, the bouts start later, and the times of the dohyo-iri and other ceremonies also change. Check the times for that day in the timetable on the Japan Sumo Association's official website.

Venue rules (example: November 2026 tournament)

As of October 14, 2026, the venue rules for the January 2027 tournament had not yet been announced. As an example, the rules for the November 2026 tournament (Fukuoka) are given here. The rules may change from tournament to tournament.

• The venue opens at 8:45 from Day 1 to Day 12. From Day 13, it opens later.
• After leaving the venue, you can re-enter as many times as you like as long as you come back by 17:00.
• You can eat and drink at your seat in Masu seats and chair seats. You cannot in Tamari seats.
• In Masu seats, put the shoes you take off in the space behind your own seat.

Getting there

Getting to the venues

• Ryogoku Kokugikan and Fukuoka Kokusai Center have no parking.

For IC cards you can use on trains and buses, see Welcome Suica: How to Buy and Use It | A 28-Day IC Card for Visitors to Japan.

Good to know

• Schedules, release dates, prices, and ways to buy may change. Before buying, check the official websites of the Japan Sumo Association and Ticket Oosumo.
• Some pages of the official websites may still show information from a previous tournament. As of October 14, 2026, the pages explaining how to buy tickets and the prices for the January tournament (Japanese and English versions) still showed the content for the previous January tournament (January 2026). Before the release date, check that the content of the page has been updated for the new tournament.
• For credit cards you can use in Japan, see Do You Need Cash in Japan? | Where Cards Work, ATMs That Accept Overseas Cards, and Currency Exchange. For preparing mobile data for your smartphone during your trip, see eSIM, SIM Card or Pocket Wi-Fi in Japan: How to Choose | 5 Ways to Get Online Compared, What to Check First, and Airport Pickup.