At 8:20 a.m. on October 10, play begins at the National Consumer Affairs Center in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture. It is the first round of the 64th Meijin challenger league; two more rounds start that day at 1:10 and 6 p.m. Ten players have nine rounds to play over three days. Only one will leave with the right to challenge the Meijin.
From regional qualifiers to a title shot
Also known as the Class A League, this competition sits between the regional qualifiers and the Meijin title match. According to the league announcement, five regional representatives join five seeded players. The league winner alone qualifies to challenge the reigning Meijin; there is no further playoff.
The representatives came through four second-stage regional qualifiers. Western Japan played on May 17 in Chikushino, Fukuoka Prefecture; Tokai on June 21 in Hamamatsu; Kansai-Hokuriku the same day in Amagasaki; and Eastern Japan on June 27 and 28 at the Basho Memorial Museum Annex in Tokyo’s Koto Ward. The Japan Renju Society lists those dates and venues in its regional qualifying records.
Five seeds, five regional representatives
The seeds are Qingqing Wang, 8-dan, making his second league appearance; Tomoharu Nakayama, 9-dan, his 14th; Mitsunori Makino, 7-dan, his sixth; Hiroshi Okabe, 9-dan, his 25th; and Shoma Matsuda, 7-dan, his fourth. Those appearance counts come from the Japan Renju Society’s league roster, which also names the National Consumer Affairs Center as the venue.
Eastern Japan sends Norihiko Kawamura, 9-dan, making his 21st appearance, and Fumiya Inoue, 7-dan, his third. Tokai’s representative is Takahisa Kono, 7-dan, making his eighth; Kansai-Hokuriku’s is Junya Takashima, 6-dan, his fourth; and Western Japan’s is Akio Kuge, 8-dan, his 14th. The roster places each player’s region beside his appearance count, so you can trace all five seats back to their qualifiers.
How nine rounds fit into three days
Rounds 1, 4 and 7 occupy the morning slots; rounds 2, 5 and 8 follow in the afternoon; rounds 3, 6 and 9 are scheduled for the evening. The October 10–12 schedule repeats that pattern each day, with four hours and 50 minutes between successive starting times. Three rounds in a day require an early start.
With ten players and nine rounds, the order of their meetings will not be settled until the draw on the evening of October 9. The schedule tells you when each round takes place; the draw will supply the names. For now, you cannot assign any particular pairing to a date.
The schedule sets the rounds. The October 9 draw will set the pairings.
Shunsuke Kamiya’s five-title run
The reigning Meijin is Shunsuke Kamiya, 9-dan. The Japan Renju Society’s results list names him as Meijin in every edition from the 59th, in 2021, through the 63rd, in 2025. This league’s winner will face a player who has held the title across five consecutive editions.
The results give you a closer view. In the 61st edition, in 2023, Kamiya defeated challenger Hiroshi Okabe, 9-dan, 3–0. Okabe was again the challenger in the 62nd, in 2024. In the 63rd, in 2025, Kamiya beat Qingqing Wang, 8-dan, 3–0. Both scores belong to completed title matches, not to this year’s league.
Qingqing Wang returns
Wang, who challenged Kamiya last year, enters this ten-player field as a seed. The Meijin results list records his 0–3 loss in the 63rd title match; the league roster marks this as his second appearance. They are records of two different contests: last year’s title match and this year’s challenger selection.
Wang won the 297th Tokyo Open Star Tournament on October 4, just six days before the league begins. The Japan Renju Society recorded the result in its domestic tournament coverage. It is a recent result worth noting, though the nine-round league starts with a new set of pairings.
Shigeru Nakamura in the record
Look through the Japan Renju Society’s Meijin results and you will find Shigeru Nakamura, 9-dan, listed as Meijin in both the 13th edition, in 1975, and the 58th, in 2020. Those two entries place his name across a remarkable span of the record. On their own, they say nothing about every intervening edition.
The results list runs from the first edition, in 1962, to the 63rd, in 2025. Opening rules changed several times along the way, a useful point of reference when you compare early and late results. There were also two exceptions to the usual title-match arrangement: in the 40th edition, in 2002, and the 59th, in 2021, the reigning Meijin declined the match, so the league’s first- and second-place finishers played for the title.
The openings changed, too
The rules record draws clear lines between eras. In editions 1 through 12, the players alternated playing Black, and the second player specified the opening pattern. Editions 13 through 25 used a draw to assign colors and a single game to decide the match. Editions 26 through 32 adopted a three-stone swap; editions 33 through 46 used pattern swapping and two five-stone proposals.
In editions 47 through 54, the opening was chosen from proposed five-stone options. Editions 55 through 62 used a four-stone swap, Soosõrv-8. Since the 63rd edition, in 2025, the Meijin competition has used the five-stone swap known as Taraguchi-10. This year’s league rules specify the same opening system.
What to watch, October 10–12
To follow the competition, you can set the Japan Renju Society’s roster beside the pairings once the draw is published. The paths taken by the seeds and regional representatives are already clear; what remains unknown is the order in which they will meet. The draw will tell you when Wang and Okabe face each of their opponents.
When the ninth round ends on October 12, the league winner will have earned the right to challenge Kamiya. As you follow the results round by round, Wang is worth watching: he challenged for the title last year and won the Tokyo Open Star Tournament six days before this league. Start with his first-round opponent.
In the first round on October 10, start by seeing who faces Qingqing Wang.