The structure involves regional qualifying races and a national championship for women and for men.
Teams for the women's championship gain qualification into the final ekiden race through a series of 3 preliminaries (2011 summary).
The Eastern Japan Corporate Ekiden Championship qualifies men's and women's teams.
Further details and results of the qualification races can be found at All-Japan Corporate Ekiden Championships.
The 33 women's teams that qualified for the championship race in mid December, 2011, ran on the new Sendai course.