After a day off for New Year's Eve, the peak of championship ekiden season rolls on first thing on Jan. 1 with the 70th edition of the New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championship race. The top 40 teams in the country race 100.0 km in 7 legs in Gunma, starting at 9:15 a.m. sharp on New Year's Day. Unedited raw camera feeds from the live broadcast will be streamed live on Youtube above starting at 9:10 a.m., with the official TBS broadcast starting at 8:30 a.m. and streaming of the broadcast on TVer. During the race live results will be posted here.
Every team has to requalify for the New Year Ekiden by running one of the 6 regional corporate ekidens in early November. Usually they're pretty similar in length and elevation change at around 80 km, making a rough comparison of where teams stand fairly straightforward. This time the East Japan race was only 74.6 km and the Kyushu race 89.3 km, meaning that going by average pace the East Japan teams had an advantage and the Kyushu ones a disadvantage to the point that the last East Japan qualifier ND Software averaged 2:53.2/km compared to Kyushu winner Mitsubishi Juko's 2:54.1/km. Also factor in the large number of top-tier Japanese marathoners who ran in the Tokyo World Championships and the Berlin Marathon and weren't in peak condition for their regional races and it's even harder to say who's looking best.
In East Japan it was a close race between Logisteed, GMO, Subaru and Sunbelx, with exactly 1 minute separating them, less than a second per km, at the end. Logisteed won in part thanks to a great run on the longest stage by Shunsuke Shikama and a solid debut by former collegiate marathon record holder Kiyoto Hirabayashi. GMO had wins on 3 of the 7 individual stages from Yuto Imae, Takato Suzuki and Chihiro Ono. Subaru had a stage win from Katsuhiko Suzuki and 2 other top 3 placings even without 3000 m SC NR holder Ryuji Miura. Sunbelx featured great runs from National Corporate Half Marathon champ Tsubasa Ichiyama, debuting Hakone star Hibiki Yoshida, and Sota Watanabe.
Honda and Fujitsu struggled with the absence of some of their top people, Fujitsu benefitting in a big way from the debut of collegiate half marathon record holder Kotaro Shinohara but finishing 7th and Honda, 2nd at this year's New Year Ekiden, only 10th. Any of these 6 teams could be in it for a top 3 placing.
2025 New Year Ekiden champion Asahi Kasei was a disaster at the Kyushu regional race, barely making the cut at 8th of 9 qualifiers. You have to figure they'll pull it together for the big show, but it's a long way to the top from where they were in November. Mitsubishi Juko, Kraftia and Kurosaki Harima were only 10 seconds apart, and at 7th at the 2025 New Year Ekiden and featuring the top Japanese man in the Tokyo World Championships marathon, Ryota Kondo, Mitsubishi Juko looks like the best bet to make top 5.
3rd in 2025, Toyota is one of the other perennial contenders for the win, featuring both 10000 m NR holder Mebuki Suzuki and half marathon NR holder Tomoki Ota. But at the Chubu region qualifying race it lost by 57 seconds to rival Toyota Boshoku, only taking a single stage win by Masashi Nonaka versus 3 from Toyota Boshoku's Yuma Nishizawa, Kento Kikutani and Takuya Hanyu. Toyota Boshoku couldn't hold it together at the 2025 New Year Ekiden and finished only 16th, but if it runs like it did in November then it could be top 5 material. Top 8 seems like a realistic goal for it.
6th last year, Sumitomo Denko won the Kansai region qualifying race by a minute over SG Holdings and is likely to be the only Kansai team with a shot at top 8. Chugoku and Hokuriku region winners Chugoku Denryoku and YKK were 19th and 26th at the 2025 New Year Ekiden and aren't likely to factor into the major action up front.
The 2026 New Year Ekiden field with bib number, region and average pace in its regional qualifying races:
12. Logisteed (East Japan) - 2:50.1/km
4. GMO (East Japan) - 2:50.6/km
5. Subaru (East Japan) - 2:50.7/km
17. Sunbelx (East Japan) - 2:50.9/km
15. JR Higashi Nihon (East Japan) - 2:51.8/km
36. M&A Best Partners (East Japan) - 2:51.9/km
8. Fujitsu (East Japan) - 2:52.0/km
13. Yakult (East Japan) - 2:52.3/km
37. Konica Minolta (East Japan) - 2:52.3/km
2. Honda (East Japan) - 2:52.4/km
38. Press Kogyo (East Japan) - 2:52.8.km
10. Kao (East Japan) - 2:53.2/km
39. ND Software (East Japan) - 2:53.2/km
7. Mitsubishi Juko (Kyushu) - 2:54.1/km
11. Kraftia (Kyushu) - 2:54.2/km
14. Kurosaki Harima (Kyushu) - 2:54.2/km
16. Toyota Boshoku (Chubu) - 2:54.5/km
6. Sumitomo Denko (Kansai) - 2:55.2/km
3. Toyota (Chubu) - 2:55.2/km
23. Toyota Kyushu (Kyushu) - 2:55.4/km
9. Yasukawa Denki (Kyushu) - 2:55.7/km
24. Hiramatsu Byoin (Kyushu) - 2:55.8/km
22. Nishitetsu (Kyushu) - 2:56.0/km
18. SG Holdings (Kansai) - 2:56.0/km
27. Aisan Kogyo (Chubu) - 2:56.1/km
21. Osaka Gas (Kansai) - 2:56.6/km
1. Asahi Kasei (Kyushu) - 2:56.9/km
19. Chugoku Denryoku (Chugoku) - 2:56.9/km
25. Aichi Seiko (Chubu) - 2:57.1/km
30. Chuo Hatsujo (Chubu) - 2:57.2/km
31. NTN (Chubu) - 2:57.7/km
35. Otsuka Seiyaku (Kansai) - 2:57.9/km
33. Chudenko (Chugoku) - 2:58.0/km
29. Mazda (Chugoku) - 2:58.4/km
34. Togami Denki (Kyushu) - 2:59.0/km
26. YKK (Hokuriku) - 2:59.1/km
28. Toenec (Chubu) - 2:59.4/km
40. Osaka Police (Kansai) - 2:59.5/km
32. Sekino Kosan (Hokuriku) - 2:59.7/km
20. JFE Steel (Chugoku) - 3:01.4/km
© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments
I think Toyota is very well positioned with Suzuki and Yoshii coming off big performances on the 10K (NR and PB), Tazawa slowly getting back to his old self. Don't know if Ota is in the lineup but they will be up a dangerous team to watch.
I don't know what to say about Honda and Asahi, want to see how Mori is doing after the world championship, hard to see them perform as bad as they did in the qualifying rounds.
GMO is another line up that has big names like Toyota but unlike them their stars are seemingly far from their top (Ota especially).
Subaru has a good team that may aim at a top 3, Miura will likely give them another good run on 1st stage like last year and a bunch of solid guys after him. Ayumu Kobayashi may prove to be a very good addition, Yuito Yamamoto is on the rise and would be a perfect fit for the late stages uphills if he were to be his former Hakone-5th stage-self but he hasn't proven he can get back to that yet.
Lots of guys and team performances to watch including debut at New Year's Ekiden for Hirabayashi, Hibiki Yoshida (I expect a lot from him), Ota (I expect him to underperform) and Shinohara.
Bring it on!