Gasterosteus nipponicus is a species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Gasterosteidae, the sticklebacks.

Gasterosteus nipponicus first formally described in 2014 by Masahito Higuchi, Harumi Sakai and Akira Goto with the type locality given Usujiri, Minamikayabe, Hokkaido in Japan.

[2] Higachi and Goto had previously identified a lineage of three-spined sticklebacks (G. aculateus) from Japan which had substantial differences from the other lineages, both morphological and genetic, and which genetic studies showed rarely hybridised with sympatric populations of threes-spined sticklebacks.

It is also found along the southern and eastern coasts of the Korean Peninsula and north to Sakhalin.

This is a benthopelagic fish which can be found in marine, brackish and fresh waters.