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World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries


We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya.

The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Japanese in Hokkaido in 2:11:59, while Masato Arao ran 2:07:42 for 6th overall on the brutal Sydney Marathon course the same day and didn't qualify.

Combine that with the schedule constraints of ekiden season and it's not hard to figure where most people will go. The Sydney Marathon, where the hilly course is estimated to be around 2 minutes slow, has Fukuda and the MGC-qualified Mizuki Nishimura in its field, along with second-tier men Kosei Shiraishi and Yoshihiro Maeda.

In terms of chasing time it's either Berlin or Chicago, but with big ekidens in November most people these days opt for the Berlin Marathon. All 4 women and the top 4 men there have already qualified for the MGC Race and are chasing times, with Mao Uesugi and Rika Kaseda leading the women and Tsubasa Ichiyama and Kiyoto Hirabayashi the men. 2 prominent alumni from Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University, Asahi Kuroda and Aoi Ota, had planned to run Berlin but are out with injury.

All 3 men at the Chicago Marathon with marathon experience have qualified for the trials, NR holder Suguru Osako leading last year's Berlin runner-up Akira Akasaki and ekiden specialist Kiyoshi Koga. Joining them is half marathon NR holder Tomoki Ota in his debut, hopefully fit to go after mostly being out of action since dislocating his shoulder in a fall at the start of the Tokyo Golden Grand Prix 3000 m in May last year. Akasaki's wife Yuka Akasaki is the only Japanese woman in the field and has to hit the 2:23:30 MGC standard to qualify.

The New York City Marathon is the only one of the WMM to have never had a Japanese winner in either its women's or men's races, mostly because its timing conflicts the most with ekiden season. Rie Kawauchi, former NR holder Kengo Suzuki and Ryota Kondo have all already made the trials, and Suzuki in particular has the freedom to pursue races like NYCM having quit the corporate system last fall to go independent.

Athletes with an asterisk have already qualified for the MGC Race. Times listed are athletes' best within last 3 years except where noted.

Sydney Marathon, 30 August

Women
*Mizuki Nishimura (Tenmaya) - 2:25:54 (1st, Hofu 2025)

Men
Kosei Shiraishi (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:08:42 (6th, Beppu-Oita 2025)
*Yudai Fukuda (Runners Connect) - 2:11:16 (Beppu-Oita 2026)
Yoshihiro Maeda (Kurosaki Harima) - 2:11:56 (12th, Beppu-Oita 2025)

Berlin Marathon, 27 September

Women
*Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro) - 2:22:11 (4th, Nagoya 2025)
*Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu) - 2:22:11 (4th, Nagoya 2024)
*Natsuki Omori (Daihatsu) - 2:23:45 (5th, Nagoya 2026)
*Rino Goshima (Shiseido) - 2:24:44 (7th, Nagoya 2026)

Men
*Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx) - 2:06:00 (10th, Tokyo 2025)
*Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Logisteed) - 2:06:14 (5th, Osaka 2026)
*Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) - 2:06:23 (13th, Tokyo 2025)
*Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) - 2:06:31 (9th, Tokyo 2024)
Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 2:06:33 (3rd, Osaka 2024)
Kenya Sonota (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:06:54 (Tokyo 2024)
Hidekazu Hijikata - 2:07:20 (2nd, Gold Coast 2026)
Shin Kimura (Honda) - 2:07:34 (14th, Tokyo 2024)
*Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyota) - 2:07:49 (2nd, Hofu 2025)
*Daisuke Uekado (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:09:03 (12th, Seoul 2026)

Chicago Marathon, 11 October

Women
Yuka Akasaki (Kraftia) - 2:21:33 (3rd, Osaka Women's 2025)

Men
*Suguru Osako (Li Ning) - 2:04:55 (NR, 4th, Valencia 2025)
*Akira Akasaki (Kraftia) - 2:06:15 (2nd, Berlin 2025)
*Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 2:07:46 (6th, Beppu-Oita 2026)
debut - Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 59:27 (2nd, Marugame Half 2025)

New York City Marathon, 1 November

Women
*Rie Kawauchi (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:24:16 (6th, Osaka Women's 2026)

Men
*Ryota Kondo (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:05:39 (2nd, Osaka 2025)
*Kengo Suzuki (Nike) - 2:06:09 (13th, Tokyo 2026)

photo © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
text © 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Anonymous said…
Huge interest for me in seeing how Yuka Akasaki runs the Chicago Marathon. She's been injured for a while and will rely on her training being sufficient to get her back into top form. I'd love to see her get a PB and attain MGC qualification. Also if her husband can get a PB in the mens that would be quite some outcome for the pair.

Being from Sydney, I'd like to see Mizuki Nishmura get a PB on the tough course. The morning weather has been perfect of late for a fast time so I hope it doesn't suddenly get hot on race day!
August 21, 2026 at 12:43 PM
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