The Japan Open in Tokyo is one of two ATP 500s in the first week of October, played at the same time as the China Open in Beijing and finishing the week before the Shanghai Masters. It is a men’s event on outdoor hard courts at the Ariake Coliseum. This guide covers how the tournament works, what players earn and who has won it, with the current year’s field in a dated section at the end.
The venue
The tournament is played at the Ariake Coliseum in the Ariake Tennis Forest Park, in Tokyo’s Koto ward on the waterfront. The Coliseum, which has a retractable roof, was the main tennis stadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in 2021. Its full name for sponsorship purposes is the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships.
Not to be confused with
Japan has three tour events in the autumn and their names overlap. The Tokyo ATP 500 in this guide is men only. The WTA 250 in Osaka, held in the second half of October, also carries the Kinoshita Group Japan Open name. The Toray Pan Pacific Open is a separate WTA 500 in Tokyo at the end of October and the start of November. All three are listed week by week in the Asian swing explained.
Format and points
Tokyo is a one-week ATP 500 with a 32-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw, preceded by two days of qualifying. The champion earns 500 ranking points, the finalist 330, the semifinalists 200 and the quarterfinalists 100. Unusually, the main draw starts on a Wednesday and the final is played on a Tuesday, which lines up with the Beijing ATP 500 and leaves players a short turnaround before Shanghai. The ATP publishes the round-by-round prize money breakdown closer to the event. For how the figures are set, see how prize money works in professional tennis.
Players choose between Tokyo and Beijing in the same week. Both lead into the Shanghai Masters, and points from both count towards the Race to Turin.
Past champions
Carlos Alcaraz won the title on his debut in 2025, beating Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Arthur Fils won in 2024, and Ben Shelton took his first ATP title here in 2023, beating Aslan Karatsev 7-5, 6-1 in the final. Fritz won in 2022, the first edition after two cancelled years during the pandemic. Novak Djokovic won in 2019, and Kei Nishikori won his home event in 2012 and 2014. [UNVERIFIED: Fils 2024, Fritz 2022 and the Djokovic and Nishikori titles are from Wikipedia edition pages and secondary reports; not yet checked against the ATP tournament overview page, which did not load. The Shelton final score is from Tennis-X quoting the ATP.]
How to watch
Matches stream on Tennis TV, the ATP’s own subscription service, and local broadcasters carry the event in many countries. Tokyo is on Japan Standard Time, GMT+9, 13 hours ahead of New York in early October, so most of the play falls overnight in the Americas and the late matches land in the European morning.
Season Snapshot: 2026
Updated 20 September 2026. According to the tournament, qualifying is on Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 September and the main draw runs from Wednesday 30 September to Tuesday 6 October.
The entry list published by the ATP on 3 September is headed by Alcaraz, the defending champion, with Shelton, Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Rafael Jodar behind him. Lorenzo Musetti, Brandon Nakashima, Jiri Lehecka, Casper Ruud and Tommy Paul are also entered, along with Joao Fonseca and Holger Rune. Alcaraz, Fritz, Jodar, Nakashima and Ruud play the Laver Cup in London the weekend before. Final seedings and withdrawals are confirmed when the draw is made.
