Japan’s Pickleball Moment as Stars Head to Tokyo for Landmark Ariake Championships

Ben Johns and Anna Bright will make their first appearances in Japan this December as the country hosts its first PPA Asia 125. And in perhaps the most intriguing development for the home crowd, Johns will partner Japan’s Yuta Funemizu in men’s doubles.

By Fabrizio Lavezzari

Japan’s pickleball scene is preparing for a landmark moment. Ben Johns and Anna Bright will make their first appearances in the country this December as Japan hosts its first PPA Asia 125. And in perhaps the most intriguing development for the home crowd, Johns will partner Japan’s Yuta Funemizu in men’s doubles.

From December 7–11, the third PJ Pickleball Championships will take over Tokyo’s Ariake Tennis Forest Park for five days of competition on a scale not previously seen in Japan. Approximately 2,000 players are expected, with 60 pickleball courts planned across the venue and more than ¥15 million in prize money and prizes.

Those numbers alone make Ariake a major event, but this year’s championships represent something considerably more important than simply increasing the size of an existing tournament. For the first time, Japan will host a PPA Asia 125, with the professional competition running across the opening three days. Players in the professional category will earn PPA ranking points according to their results, with 125 points awarded to the winners.

Adding considerably to the international profile of the tournament, Ben Johns and Anna Bright will both make their first appearances in Japan. Johns needs little introduction to anyone who has followed the rise of professional pickleball. One of the defining players of the modern game, his presence at Ariake immediately gives the tournament a different level of international visibility. Bright brings another of the biggest names in the women’s professional game to Tokyo and is particularly renowned for her speed, anticipation and strength around the kitchen.

Their presence is significant not only for spectators, who will have a rare opportunity to watch elite professional pickleball in Japan, but also for Japanese players who have largely followed the highest levels of the professional game from afar. For a sport still establishing itself in the country, there is a considerable difference between watching the world’s best players online and seeing them competing on a court in Tokyo.

Johns and Funemizu together in Tokyo

Perhaps the most fascinating announcement, however, concerns who will be standing on the same side of the net as Johns.

In men’s doubles, Johns will partner Yuta Funemizu, one of the leading figures in Japan’s emergence on the international pickleball scene. Funemizu became Japan’s first Major League Pickleball player and in 2026 became the first Japanese player to win a PPA Tour men’s doubles title. He also won men’s doubles at the PPA Asia 500 Sansan Tokyo Open earlier this year.

His progress has been followed closely by WPM. When Funemizu signed with the PPA Tour and MLP in 2025, his stated ambitions included becoming the first Japanese player to compete in Major League Pickleball and the first to win a PPA Tour event. Both have since become reality.

The significance of the Johns–Funemizu partnership goes beyond the result they may ultimately achieve at Ariake. Only a few years ago, Japan occupied a relatively small place on the international pickleball map. This December, one of the most accomplished players in the history of the sport will not simply compete in Japan or play against Japanese opposition. He will compete alongside one of the country’s leading players.

It is a partnership that says something about the speed with which Japan is becoming integrated into the international game.

From professionals to 2,000 players

The event itself also reflects the broader character of pickleball’s growth in Japan. Ariake will not be exclusively about the professionals.

Categories range from 18U through 19+, 35+, 50+ and 60+, with different skill divisions allowing players of different ages and levels to compete, while applicable results will be recorded in DUPR. The combination of international stars and approximately 2,000 participating players is an important part of the appeal: some will arrive with professional ambitions, while many others will simply be testing themselves after another year of playing and improving.

The PPA Asia 125 adds a professional pathway to that wider gathering. Under the PPA Tour Asia 125 structure, champions receive 125 ranking points, with points available deeper into the draw, while winners also secure free entry into the next PPA Asia 500 event.

That pathway now sits alongside a Japanese professional scene that has already begun producing significant results. Japan’s expanding pickleball infrastructure has developed alongside its emergence as a PPA Tour Asia host, while players such as Funemizu are beginning to give that development an increasingly visible competitive identity.

Corporate backing grows with the event

There is also growing corporate weight behind the event.

ZIPAIR Tokyo and Kenedix are the title sponsors, with ZOZO, Burger King, Sansan, Mitsui Fudosan, JOOLA, Memolead, Aoyama Sports, DIADEM, JTB and Toa Road among the other companies supporting the championships.

That level of commercial involvement, together with the scale of the venue and the arrival of established international stars, is another indication of how quickly the Japanese pickleball landscape is changing.

When the first ball is struck at Ariake in December, the attention will inevitably be on the names, the matches and the results. But the bigger story may be what the tournament represents.

With the professional game becoming increasingly connected to Japan and a rapidly expanding community developing beneath it, Ariake 2026 could prove to be less a culmination than the beginning of the next chapter for pickleball in Japan.

Further Reading

• Yuta Funemizu Makes History as First Japanese Player to Sign with PPA and MLP
• Why Japan’s Largest Pickleball Venue Has 20 Courts
• MLP Asia Domestic Draft Builds Six Teams Around Local Talent

Fabrizio Lavezzari

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fabrizio Lavezzari is a contributor to World Pickleball Magazine.

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