The 31st edition in 1986 was held around Hikone and the Shiga Prefecture, but the race moved again the following year to its current location of Gunma.
It has been claimed that the high TV viewing figures of this meet makes it the central motivating event in the annual calendar for professional runners in Japan.
[5] Teams gain qualification into the final ekiden race through a series of preliminaries which are principally conducted on a regional basis.
Although the majority of the competing athletes are Japanese, a limited number of foreign runners are allowed to participate.
Past Kenyans that have competed at the New Year Ekiden include Martin Mathathi, Josephat Ndambiri and Samuel Wanjiru.