Editing Sports in Japan (section)

==Professional organizations==
[[File:Saitama Stadium 1.jpg|thumb|right|[[J1 League]] football game at [[Saitama Stadium]]]]The most popular professional sports in Japan are [[baseball]], [[association football]] (soccer), [[sumo wrestling]], [[basketball]], and [[golf]]. Note that most practitioners in the martial arts are not professional, but amateurs.

{| class="wikitable" 
! Favorite professional sport || 2005<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports05.pdf 13th Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> || 2011<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports11.pdf 19th Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> || 2013<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports13.pdf 21st Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> || 2016<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports16.pdf 24th Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> || 2017<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports17.pdf 25th Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref>|| 2018<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports18.pdf 26th Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> || 2019<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports19.pdf 27th Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> || 2020<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports20.pdf 28th Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> || 2021<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports21.pdf 29th Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> || 2022<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports22.pdf 30th Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> || 2023<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports23.pdf 31st Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref>  || 2024<ref>[http://www.crs.or.jp/data/pdf/sports24.pdf 32nd Annual Popular Sports Survey], Central Research Services-CRS</ref> 
|-
| '''[[Baseball]]''' ([[Nippon Professional Baseball]]) ||51.7%||45.1%||48.4%||42.8%||45.2%||48.1%||42.8%||45.5%||37.9%||45.9%||53.1%||51.8%
|-
| '''[[Association football]]''' ([[J. League]]) ([[WE League]])||22.8%||28.9%||36.0%||26.2%||25.0%||24.8%||22.8%||26.0%||17.6%||24.0%||24.3%||24.4%
|-
| '''[[Sumo wrestling ]]''' (Ōzumō)||17.1%||15.1%|||15.8%||21.8%||27.3%||20.7%||20.1%||21.4%||20.0%||20.1%||18.5%||20.1%
|-
| '''Do not care about sports''' ||24.4%||22.0%||18.9%||24.0%||18.2%||18.2%||18.7%||20.2%||27.8%||20.3%||22.3%||20.0%  
|-
| '''[[Basketball]]''' ([[B.League]]) (W League)||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||6.0%||7.4%||6.5%||9.1%||6.3%||9.6%||8.9%||15.2%
|-
| '''[[Golf]]''' ([[Japan Golf Tour]] & [[LPGA of Japan Tour|JLPGA Tour]]) ||16.9%||19.9%||16.0%||13.4%||13.7%||13.9%||9.4%||15.4%||12.8%||13.6%||10.4%||12.3%
|-
| '''[[Tennis]]''' ([[Japan Open (tennis)|Japan Open]]) ||N/A||N/A||N/A||20.6%||21.7%||18.5%||19.8%||20.0%||14.0%||13.4%||9.9%||10.6%  
|-
| '''[[Boxing]]''' ||7.8%||7.7%||7.8%||9.8%||9.2%||10.3%||6.7%||9.6%||6.7%||8.5%||8.7%||7.9%
|-
| '''[[Motor racing]]''' ||6.2%||7.7%||7.0%||7.0%||5.2%||6.1%||5.0%||8.0%||4.2%||6.1%||5.4%||5.9%
|-
| '''[[Puroresu]]''' (pro-wrestling) ||4.2%||3.1%||3.5%||4.7%||3.8%||4.4%||3.3%||4.5%||2.2%||3.8%||4.0%||4.1%
|-
| '''Others''' ||8.0%||5.7%||7.8%||3.7%||7.8%||7.0%||8.5%||4.9%||7.0%||7.6%||5.1%||5.8%
|-
| '''[[American Football|Gridiron Football]]''' ([[X-League (Japan)|X-League]]){{ref label|X-League|a}} ||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A
|-
| '''[[Futsal]]''' ([[F.League]]) ||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A
|}

Notes: 
* {{Note|X-League|a}} Japan has no professional Gridiron Football teams. The above means watching the US [[National Football League]] and Canadian [[Canadian Football League]] games on TV.

In addition, there are professional sports for [[gambling in Japan|gambling]] purposes; some fans enjoy them as spectator sports without betting money.
* [[Horse racing in Japan|Horse racing]] – 25 races have international Grade I ratings. [[Arima Kinen]] is the world's biggest betting race.
* [[Keirin]] – bicycle racing. Became an Olympic sport in 2000 in its modified form
* [[Kyotei]] – powerboat racing
* [[Auto Race (Japanese sport)|Auto Race]] – motorbike racing on oval tracks