Boxing in Japan

The history of boxing in Japan began in 1854 when Matthew Perry landed at Shimoda, Shizuoka soon after the Convention of Kanagawa.

At that time, American sailors often engaged in sparring matches on board their ships, with their fists wrapped in thin leather.

[1][2] The first exhibition match named Western Professional Sumo (西洋大相撲) was held in Tsukiji, Tokyo in 1887.

The first boxing gym Meriken Training Institute (メリケン練習所) was established in Ishikawachō, Yokohama, Kanagawa by James Hōjō (ジェームス 北條) and Toranosuke Saitō (齋藤 虎之助) in 1896.

After the first tutorial book, Bōgeki Jizai Seiyō Kentōjutsu (防撃自在西洋拳闘術) was issued in 1900, followed shortly by International Jūken Club (国際柔拳倶楽部) was opened in Mikage, Kobe by Kenji Kanō in 1909.

[4][5] After learning boxing in San Francisco, California, since 1906, Yujiro Watanabe [ja] (渡辺勇次郎, Yūjirō Watanabe, aka Father of Japanese Boxing or Four-Round King) established Nippon Kentō Club (日本拳闘倶楽部) in Shimomeguro, Meguro, Tokyo, on December 25, 1921.

The first Japanese championships for amateur boxers was held by Kenji Kanō's Dai Nippon Kentōkai (大日本拳闘会) in 1927.

Nobuhiro Ishida knocked out the previously undefeated James Kirkland at the MGM Grand Las Vegas to be awarded The Ring Upset of the Year.

[26] Ryōta Murata secured the silver medal in the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Therefore, they have recognized the titles and ratings only in thirteen weight divisions from minimumweight to middleweight for over fifty years.

One is the All-Japan Rookie King (全日本新人王, Zen-Nihon shinjin'ō) Tournament which came to be known by the popular anime/manga series Hajime no Ippo,[* 2] and the other is the Japanese Title Elimination Tournament nicknamed The Strongest in Korakuen (最強後楽園, Saikyō Kōrakuen, former Class A Tournament), which is competed by "class A boxers" who have acquired a "class A license" to fight in eight or more round bouts, and whose winners would be recognized as the next mandatory challengers against each divisional Japanese champion in the annual mandatory bout series Champion Carnival.

[53] That is because Japan's professional boxing has given priority to holding the fights in their own country to get paid television broadcast rights fees.

In April 2012, The Ring's Doug Fischer outlined the following three basic conditions that are required for Japan's boxing in order to earn international recognition: #The Japanese commission needs to recognize the WBO and the IBF.

The chairman of the WBA's championship committee Elias Cordova had warned on the day of the fight stating that "The minute he steps into the ring Watanabe will be stripped of his title.

"[57][58][59] In the fight between the WBC's Hozumi Hasegawa and the WBO's Fernando Montiel, Montiel's WBO title was not at stake[60] because the JBC had recognized only the WBA, WBC and its co-founder OPBF[61] as legitimate governing organizations sanctioning championship bouts and had not allowed their boxers to fight for the other organizations' titles.

[67] In 1973, one boxer among them died after an eighth-round knockout loss in a super featherweight ten-round bout in Agana, Guam.

He never regained consciousness after a ninth-round technical knockout loss at the Koshien tennis court in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo in 1930.

The lithograph published by D. Appleton & Company for Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan: Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854 by Francis L. Hawks
Yūjirō Watanabe, known as the Father of Japanese Boxing (born 1889 or 1890) [ 3 ]
Sadayuki Ogino, the Father of Japanese Boxing (1901–1970)
Tsuneo "Piston" Horiguchi (1914–1950)
Yoshio Shirai, on the day he was crowned Japan's first world champion, 1952
Cover of the first issue of Boxing Magazine , 1956
Nobuhiro Ishida, 2010
Heavyweight boxer Kyotaro Fujimoto . Retained OPBF and WBO Asia Pacific heavyweight titles in May 2018.
A scene from a preliminary match of the 2006 East Japan Rookie King Tournament at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo
Daisuke Naitō in 2009
The number of Japan's male world champions per weight class up to November 2013. Champions in multiple weight classes are counted in each category. Satoshi Shingaki who became the IBF champion before April 1, 2013, and Kōki Etō who won the interim title since February 28, 2011, are not officially recognized as Japan's champions, but are included here.
The number of fatalities in Japan's boxing, 1952–2013. The numbers include six deaths before 1952. Boxers who died after being in a coma for more than one year after the fatal fight are counted in the year the fight happened.