Sumo Tickets and Event Tickets in Japan 2026–2027: Sumo, Kabuki, Concerts and How to Get In

Sumo tickets for the next Tokyo tournament (10 to 24 January 2027 at the Ryogoku Kokugikan) go on sale on 5 December 2026, through the official Ticket Oosumo site. The November 2026 Kyushu tournament in Fukuoka (8 to 22 November) is listed as sold out on every day.

This hub covers every 2027 sumo date and release date, then kabuki, Takarazuka, football, baseball and J-pop concerts. You also get the lottery system, ID rules, konbini payment and a calendar of big ticketed events from November 2026 to March 2027. It is updated monthly.

Which event tickets are easiest to get in Japan?

If you only have a few days, start with whatever has the simplest English booking path. Here is how the main options compare for a visitor booking from abroad in late 2026.

Event	Cheapest verified ticket	Book in English?	Hardest part
Sumo (Kokugikan)	Chair seat C, about ¥3,500 on weekdays	Yes, Ticket Oosumo	Sells out fast; print at Seven-Eleven in Japan
Kabuki (Kabukiza)	4th-level single act, ¥1,500 (Oct 2026)	Yes, Shochiku multilingual site	Unreserved single acts are sold on the day only
Takarazuka	Check the official site	Yes, official English ticket site	No subtitles or audio guide in Tokyo
J.League football	Varies by club	Yes, via Ticket Pia English pages	Each club sells through its own page
J-pop concerts	Varies by tour	Partly (e+, Lawson Ticket)	Lotteries need Japanese membership; name checks at the gate

Sumo and kabuki are the safest bets for a first trip: both have official English sales and clear release dates. Concerts are the hardest, so treat a big J-pop show as a bonus, not the reason for your trip.

When do sumo tickets go on sale for 2026 and 2027?

There are six grand tournaments (honbasho) a year, each 15 days long. Tickets go on sale four to eight weeks before day one, according to the Japan Sumo Association schedule. The November 2026 tournament was already listed as sold out on every day by 18 October.

Tournament	Dates	Venue	Tickets on sale
November 2026 (Kyushu)	8–22 Nov 2026	Fukuoka Kokusai Center, Fukuoka	Since 19 Sep 2026 (listed sold out)
January 2027 (Hatsu)	10–24 Jan 2027	Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo	5 Dec 2026
March 2027 (Haru)	14–28 Mar 2027	EDION Arena Osaka	6 Feb 2027
May 2027 (Natsu)	9–23 May 2027	Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo	10 Apr 2027
July 2027 (Nagoya)	11–25 Jul 2027	IG Arena, Nagoya	15 May 2027
September 2027 (Aki)	12–26 Sep 2027	Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo	7 Aug 2027
November 2027 (Kyushu)	14–28 Nov 2027	Fukuoka Kokusai Center, Fukuoka	18 Sep 2027

For the November 2026 tournament, sales opened at 10:00 Japan time on 19 September. Set an alarm for 10:00 JST on the release day for January and March. For the July tournament in Nagoya, see our Nagoya sumo basho guide.

How do you buy sumo tickets from overseas?

Use Ticket Oosumo English, the official seller run with Ticket Pia and linked from the Sumo Association ticket page. You pick a day and seat type, then pay online. For the November 2026 tournament, the English site took credit cards only and charged a ¥2,000 service fee plus a ¥550 special sales fee per ticket.

The catch: tickets can only be printed at a Seven-Eleven in Japan. Your pickup details come on the completion screen and in the confirmation email. Tickets cannot be changed or cancelled, and lost tickets will not get you in.

Sumo seat types and prices

Box seats (masu-seki) are floor cushions in a box for four, sold per box. Chair seats are normal stadium seats upstairs. These are the Sumo Association’s approximate prices; they vary by venue.

Seat	Weekend and holiday	Weekday
Masu box B (4 people)	¥42,000	¥40,000
Masu box C (4 people)	¥38,000	¥34,000
Chair seat B (1 person)	¥5,500	¥5,000
Chair seat C (1 person)	¥4,000	¥3,500

Fukuoka is pricier at the top: S boxes for the November 2026 tournament cost ¥56,000 at weekends and ¥52,000 on weekdays. Chair seats there ranged from ¥6,000 down to ¥2,000. Ringside seats (¥20,000 per person) were sold on the Japanese site only, and children aged four and over need their own ticket.

How do kabuki tickets and single-act (makumi) tickets work?

The Kabukiza in Ginza sells two kinds of ticket: full programmes and single-act seats. Full programmes are sold online through the Shochiku multilingual ticket site, by phone on +81 3 6745-0888 (10:00 to 17:00 JST, English spoken) or at the box office. Online sales close the day before each show.

November 2026 is Kanadehon Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers), from 1 to 25 November, with no shows on the 9th and 17th. Matinees start at 11:00 and evening shows at 16:30. Seats cost ¥5,000 (Upper Tier B) to ¥20,000, and English captioning adds ¥1,500. The December programme runs 2 to 25 December, again with no shows on the 9th and 17th.

Single-act tickets: the cheapest way in

Single-act tickets let you watch one act from the 4th level, or from upgraded seats on the 2nd level. Reserved single-act seats are sold online in advance, and unreserved 4th-level seats are sold on the day at the Single Act Box Office. It is on Level 1, to the left of the main entrance.

For the October 2026 programme, 4th-level single acts cost ¥1,500 to ¥4,000 and upgraded 2nd-level seats ¥5,400 to ¥13,800, according to Kabuki Web. English captioning for a single act is ¥1,000, cash only. Act times are confirmed the evening before the run starts.

January 2027: no Kabukiza programme was listed when we checked. Kabuki Web lists New Year programmes at Asakusa Public Hall in Tokyo and Shin-Kabukiza in Osaka instead.

How do you get Takarazuka tickets?

The all-female Takarazuka Revue plays the Takarazuka Grand Theater in Hyogo and the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater in Hibiya. The Tokyo theatre is a five-minute walk from JR Yurakucho Station. Overseas visitors can buy on the official English ticket site, since the theatre’s phone line is Japanese-only and takes no overseas calls.

Production	Theatre	Dates
Elisabeth: Rondo of Love and Death	Takarazuka Grand Theater	17 Oct – 22 Nov 2026
RRR × TAKA”R”AZUKA –√Rama–	Tokyo Takarazuka Theater	31 Oct – 13 Dec 2026
Artemis: Shooting for the Heavens / Belle Époque	Takarazuka Grand Theater	12 Dec 2026 – 24 Jan 2027
Elisabeth: Rondo of Love and Death	Tokyo Takarazuka Theater	19 Dec 2026 – 7 Feb 2027
Artemis: Shooting for the Heavens / Belle Époque	Tokyo Takarazuka Theater	13 Feb – 28 Mar 2027

There are no English subtitles or audio guides at the Tokyo theatre. Read the plot before you go, especially for Elisabeth, which is sung throughout.

How do you buy J.League and baseball tickets?

The J.League has switched to an August-to-spring calendar: the 2026/27 season kicked off on 7 August 2026, according to jleague.jp. Every J1, J2 and J3 club has an English ticket link on the J.League tickets page, which takes you to Ticket Pia’s English pages. Matches at the National Stadium have their own ticket page.

Japanese pro baseball (NPB) runs from spring to autumn, so there is no regular-season baseball between November and March. NPB had not published its 2027 schedule on npb.jp when we checked. For the 2026 Japan Series, general sale opened at 12:00 on 22 October via Lawson Ticket, e+ and Ticket Pia, with separate overseas sales links on the NPB ticket page.

How do you buy concert tickets in Japan?

Big J-pop and K-pop shows in Japan sell mostly by lottery, not first come, first served. The usual order is a fan-club lottery, then presale lotteries on ticket sites, then a general sale (ippan hatsubai) for whatever is left. The best seats go in the lotteries, which often need a Japanese phone number or membership.

Seller	English option	What overseas buyers should know
Lawson Ticket (l-tike.com)	Yes, plus a non-Japanese customer guide	Only general-sale tickets can be bought from abroad; membership registration does not work from overseas, and overseas cards may be refused
e+ / eplus (eplus.tickets)	Yes, separate English site	Sells concerts, festivals and stage shows; tickets are collected via AnyPASS; it warns that resale tickets may not get you in
Ticket Pia (t.pia.jp)	English pages	Runs Ticket Oosumo and the J.League club ticket pages

Read the Lawson Ticket guide for non-Japanese customers before you try. It says e-tickets need a phone that works in Japan, and konbini payment must be made at a Lawson store before the deadline, usually three days.

What are the ID check, face-recognition and resale rules?

Japan’s ticket resale law came into force on 14 June 2019. It bans reselling “specified” tickets as a business above face value without the organiser’s consent. Specified tickets carry a date and venue, a named holder or a seat, and a printed resale ban; breaking the law can mean up to one year in prison, a ¥1 million fine, or both.

Organisers back this up at the gate. Many check that the ticket holder’s name matches photo ID, and some tours use face recognition: Momoiro Clover Z first used NEC face matching at concerts in 2014, and acts such as B’z and Mr.Children have used it since. If a ticket is in someone else’s name, expect to be refused.

If you cannot go, use the official resale or trade service named on your ticket page. E-ticket app TixPlus, for example, runs an official trade service at face value. Never buy from auction sites or social media.

How does konbini payment and ticket pickup work?

Many Japanese ticket sites let you reserve online, then pay and print at a convenience store (konbini). You get a reservation number, pay at the store before the deadline, and the clerk hands you paper tickets. At Lawson and Ministop you use the Loppi terminal; sumo tickets are printed only at Seven-Eleven.

• Pay before the deadline, or the order is cancelled.
• Check the pickup start date in your confirmation email.
• Keep the paper ticket flat and dry. Lost sumo tickets are not reissued.
• If you prefer e-tickets, check the app works on a Japanese SIM or eSIM before you fly.

Tokyo Dome and Nippon Budokan: the basics

	Tokyo Dome	Nippon Budokan
Capacity	45,600 for baseball; 42,000 to 55,000 for events	14,471
Nearest stations	Suidobashi (JR), Korakuen (Marunouchi, Namboku), Kasuga (Oedo, Mita)	Kudanshita (Tozai, Hanzomon, Shinjuku), Exit 2, 5 minutes
Known for	Yomiuri Giants home games and stadium concerts	Concerts and martial arts since 1964
Getting there	Three stations within walking distance	No visitor parking; use Exits 1 or 3 when it is crowded

Capacities are from Wikipedia; access details are from the Nippon Budokan website. Both venues post their own rules for each event, so read the notice on your ticket page.

Calendar: big ticketed events, November 2026 to March 2027

Dates	Event	Venue	Tickets
To 22 Nov 2026	Takarazuka: Elisabeth	Takarazuka Grand Theater	Official
31 Oct – 13 Dec 2026	Takarazuka: RRR × TAKA”R”AZUKA	Tokyo Takarazuka Theater	Official
1–25 Nov 2026	Kabuki: Kanadehon Chushingura	Kabukiza, Ginza	Kabuki Web
8–22 Nov 2026	Sumo: November tournament	Fukuoka Kokusai Center	Ticket Oosumo
To 7 Dec 2026	MAPPA EXPO	Yurakucho	See our MAPPA EXPO guide
2–25 Dec 2026	Kabuki: December programme	Kabukiza, Ginza	Kabuki Web
5 Dec 2026	January sumo tickets on sale	Online	Ticket Oosumo
12 Dec 2026 – 24 Jan 2027	Takarazuka: Artemis / Belle Époque	Takarazuka Grand Theater	Official
19 Dec 2026 – 7 Feb 2027	Takarazuka: Elisabeth	Tokyo Takarazuka Theater	Official
10–24 Jan 2027	Sumo: January tournament	Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo	Ticket Oosumo
6 Feb 2027	March sumo tickets on sale	Online	Ticket Oosumo
13 Feb – 28 Mar 2027	Takarazuka: Artemis / Belle Époque	Tokyo Takarazuka Theater	Official
14–28 Mar 2027	Sumo: March tournament	EDION Arena Osaka	Ticket Oosumo

For free festivals, illuminations and markets this month, see Tokyo events in November 2026. For New Year’s Eve and the first days of January, see New Year in Tokyo 2027.

Sumo tickets and event tickets FAQ

Sources and how we checked

All dates, prices and sale times on this page were checked on 18 October 2026 against the official sources linked above: the Japan Sumo Association, Ticket Oosumo, Kabuki Web, the Takarazuka Revue, the J.League, NPB and the ticket sellers, plus JNTO. Sale dates can move, so check the official page before you buy. We update this hub monthly.