How do I get Grand Sumo tickets?

How does the sumo ticket ladder work?

Every tournament (basho) sells tickets through the same ladder, each rung opening before the next. For the September 2026 basho, verified on sumo.pia.jp/sumo09.jsp on 16 July 2026, the rungs are:

1. Fan Club 1st-round lottery (paid membership tiers): entries 11am JST 18 July to 11pm JST 21 July; results around 6pm JST 23 July; payment by 11:30pm JST 25 July.
2. Fan Club 2nd-round lottery (adds the lower paid tiers): entries 11am JST 24 July to 11pm JST 27 July; results around 6pm JST 29 July; payment by 11:30pm JST 31 July.
3. Ticket Oosumo advance lottery (free, open to anyone): entries 11am JST 30 July to 11pm JST 2 August; results around 6pm JST 4 August; payment is charged automatically to your card by 11:30pm JST 5 August.
4. Pia pre-reserve lottery: a short extra draw on 4 to 5 August, results around midday JST 7 August (listed on the same official schedule).
5. General sale: from 10am JST on 8 August, first come, first served, until it sells out.

The free lottery in the middle of that ladder is the headline: it needs no paid membership, and it covers the same seats the general sale would offer, before the general sale gets them.

How do I enter the free Ticket Oosumo lottery?

1. Register a free account at sumo.pia.jp (the site is in Japanese; browser translation works fine for the forms).
2. During the entry window (30 July, 11am JST, to 2 August, 11pm JST, for the September basho), pick your day or days and seat type, and submit a lottery entry. You can rank preferences or allow multiple wins.
3. Wait for the draw: results appear on your account page and by email from around 6pm JST on 4 August.
4. If you win, there is nothing more to do to secure the seats: your card is charged automatically by 11:30pm JST on 5 August. For Tokyo tournaments the exact seat number stays hidden until the ticket is issued.

What is the Fan Club lottery, and is it worth paying for?

The Japan Sumo Association's official Fan Club runs two lottery rounds before the free lottery, and they are the earliest crack at tickets, including the ringside tamari seats that rarely reach general sale. Applying is free, but only paid membership tiers qualify: the 1st round is for the Yokozuna, Ozeki and Sekiwake courses, and the 2nd round adds the Komusubi and Makuuchi courses. As reported when the club launched, tiers ranged from JPY 550 per month (Makuuchi) to JPY 330,000 per year (Yokozuna); check current fees on fanclub.sumo.or.jp before joining, and note the free Juryo tier does not qualify for ticket lotteries. For one or two visits a year, the free lottery is the sensible route; the Fan Club makes sense for regulars who want the earliest pick or ringside.

Can foreigners buy Grand Sumo tickets?

Yes. Anyone can enter the free Ticket Oosumo lottery with a free account, though the site is Japanese-language and tickets are issued in Japan. The official English-language site at sumo.pia.jp/en is built for overseas fans but carries no lottery: it sells first come, first served from the general-sale date (8 August for the September basho), adds a JPY 2,000 fee per ticket, and tickets are printed at 7-Eleven stores once you are in Japan. If your dates are fixed and you are set on going, the free lottery via the Japanese site is the better shot; the English site is the fallback.

What do sumo tickets cost?

Face values at Ryogoku Kokugikan for the September 2026 basho: chair seats JPY 2,500 to 9,500 per person depending on grade (a child chair seat in the cheapest grade is JPY 500), ringside tamari seats JPY 20,000 per person (age 16 and up), and masu box seats, sold as whole boxes, from about JPY 17,000 for a 2-person C box to about JPY 78,000 for a 6-person A box. Weekends and holidays price higher than weekdays. Winners pay face value plus issuing and system fees.

What are my odds in the lottery?

No official odds are published, and the draw is random. Weekends, the opening weekend and the final days are heavily oversubscribed, and recent tournaments sold out entirely across all channels: the July 2026 Nagoya basho is a complete sell-out as it runs. Weekday sessions in the first week are the easiest wins. If the lottery misses, the general sale on 8 August is the next chance, but plan to be online at 10am JST sharp.

What if I miss the lottery and the general sale?

The only sanctioned secondary route is the official face-value resale service, which lists seats released by buyers who cannot attend. Outside that, unofficial resale sites and street sellers around Kokugikan are unsanctioned and risky: tickets are issued through official channels and a bad ticket means no entry. Our what to do after missing a ballot guide covers the general fallbacks, and the Aki Basho event page tracks every date above with sources. The free calendar carries the lottery and sale dates for this and every basho we track, and updates itself as windows are confirmed.