A long boxing tradition

Japan has produced world champions since the 1950s. Korakuen Hall in Tokyo has been the sport's home in Asia for decades.

What has changed is where the current Japanese fighters win. They have headlined in Las Vegas and filled the Tokyo Dome. Western commentators now look to Japan when they talk about pound-for-pound talent.

Naoya Inoue

Naoya Inoue, known as the Monster, is the best-known name in this group. He has won world titles in four weight divisions, starting at light flyweight. At bantamweight he held all four major belts. He walks opponents down and looks for the finish.

Inoue keeps choosing the hardest fight available in his division. That has brought him fans who had never followed a bantamweight or super bantamweight before.

Where he fights

Inoue has split his biggest nights between Tokyo and the United States. A fighter at his level can now be a star at home and abroad in the same year.

The rest of the golden generation

A group of Japanese champions has come through in the same few years. Some fans now call it a golden generation.

• Junto Nakatani: a world champion who has held a title at bantamweight. He is tall with a long reach for the weight, where quickness and volume usually decide fights.
• Kenshiro Teraji: a long-reigning light flyweight champion whose technical boxing makes him hard to look good against.
• Kazuto Ioka: a world champion at several of the lighter weights, and one of the best-known veterans in Japanese boxing.

Ryota Murata deserves a mention too. He built his career at middleweight before he retired. He drew Western fans to a Japanese fighter well above the weights Japan is known for.

Why Japan is strongest in the lighter weights

Most of these names sit between light flyweight and bantamweight. Japan has built its deepest domestic scene and its most experienced trainers around those weights over decades. Western promoters have paid those weights far less attention.

The boxing weight class finder takes a fighter's weight and shows the division it falls into, with the limits either side. The piece on why the flyweight division deserves your attention looks at why fighters at this end of the scale get overlooked.

Watching them

Broadcast access to Japanese cards varies by region, so check your local listings before a fight. Upcoming dates the site has recorded are on the fight calendar. To set two of these fighters' records, reach and recent form side by side, try the fighter comparison tool.