# The 18 Greatest Japanese Boxers of All Time

> Postwar pioneers who fought for the country's first belts sit alongside modern unified champions and a couple of crowd favourites from the lighter divisions.

*By YPB Team · Published November 2, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-18-greatest-japanese-boxers-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Kenshiro Teraji** — score 1000/1000
   Won the WBC light flyweight title in 2017, regained it in 2022 and unified it with the WBA belt later that year.
2. **Takashi Uchiyama** — score 930/1000
   Held the WBA super featherweight title from 2010 to 2016 and made 11 successful defences.
3. **Shinsuke Yamanaka** — score 891/1000
   WBC bantamweight champion from 2011 to 2017, he made 12 successful title defences with a feared left hand.
4. **Kazuto Ioka** — score 848/1000
   Became the first Japanese man to win world titles in four weight classes when he took the WBO super flyweight belt in 2019.
5. **Kuniaki Shibata** — score 818/1000
   Won world titles three times in the 1970s, once at featherweight and twice at super featherweight.
6. **Masao Ohba** — score 734/1000
   WBA flyweight champion from 1970 who died in a car crash in January 1973 while still holding the title.
7. **Naoya Inoue** — score 734/1000
   A four-division world champion who became undisputed champion at bantamweight in 2022 and at super bantamweight in 2023.
8. **Koichi Wajima** — score 734/1000
   Held the WBA light middleweight title three separate times, winning it in 1971, 1975 and 1976.
9. **Yoko Gushiken** — score 636/1000
   An Okinawan southpaw who made 13 successful defences of the WBA light flyweight title between 1976 and 1981.
10. **Joichiro Tatsuyoshi** — score 636/1000
   Won the WBC bantamweight title in 1991 and regained it in 1997, becoming one of Japan's most popular fighters of the 1990s.
11. **Hiroshi Kobayashi** — score 520/1000
   Won the world super featherweight title in 1967 and held it into 1971.
12. **Fighting Harada** — score 520/1000
   Masahiko Harada won the flyweight title in 1962 and the undisputed bantamweight title in 1965 by beating Éder Jofre.
13. **Yoshio Shirai** — score 382/1000
   Japan's first world boxing champion, he won the flyweight title from Dado Marino in Tokyo in 1952.
14. **Hozumi Hasegawa** — score 382/1000
   Held the WBC bantamweight title from 2005 to 2010, then won further WBC belts at featherweight in 2010 and super bantamweight in 2016.
15. **Koki Kameda** — score 382/1000
   A three-division world champion who won titles at light flyweight in 2006, flyweight in 2009 and bantamweight in 2010.
16. **Hiroyuki Ebihara** — score 0/1000
   Won the flyweight world title with a first-round knockout of Pone Kingpetch in 1963 and regained the WBA belt in 1969.
17. **Ryota Murata** — score 0/1000
   Won middleweight gold at the 2012 London Olympics and later held the WBA middleweight title before facing Gennady Golovkin in 2022.
18. **Junto Nakatani** — score 0/1000
   A tall southpaw who won world titles at flyweight in 2020, super flyweight in 2023 and bantamweight in 2024.

Tags: sports, japan, boxing, boxers