Cricket in Japan
Cricket in Japan is growing. It was brought by the British, with the first match in 1863 in Yokohama and the first club, Yokohama Cricket Club, founded in 1868 by James Mollison. For many years cricket in Japan was mostly played by expatriates in Yokohama and Kobe. Baseball became more popular by the early 1900s, and cricket’s longer formats and surface needs limited its rise during that era.
The Japan Cricket Association (JCA) was formed in 1984. Japan joined the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1989 as an affiliate member and became an associate member in 2005. The country’s women’s game joined the IWCC in 1995.
Japan’s first major international for the men’s team was the 1996 ACC Trophy in Malaysia; the women’s team debuted in the 2003 IWCC Trophy in the Netherlands. Club cricket moved from two-day matches to a limited-overs league in 1999.
The JCA headquarters are in Sano, Tochigi. The Sano International Cricket Ground is the main venue for national and international matches. In 2016 plans were announced to upgrade it to One Day International (ODI) standards, including floodlights and a new pavilion. Another ground, Fujigawa Green Park in Fuji, Shizuoka, hosted regional events such as the 2004 East Asia-Pacific Cricket Challenge.
By 2016 about 3,000 people played cricket in Japan across roughly 200 teams. Fourteen Japanese women have played ODI cricket, all in 2003. The men’s team has not yet played ODI. A few male first-class cricketers were born in Japan, all of British descent.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:15 (CET).