During every year with the Meijin title match, two rounds of qualification tournaments are held in parallel in different regions of Japan.
If the challenger gets at least 3 points from 5 games, he wins the match and gains the Meijin title.
Before the Meijin-sen tournaments were launched in 1962, the title of Lifetime Meijin was awarded to the players who had made outstanding contributions to the development of Renju.
Since 1962, the title is awarded to the players who have outstanding performance in the Meijin-sen tournaments.
Before the Meijin-sen tournaments were started, there were five Japanese players who were awarded the title of Lifetime Meijin.