The All Japan Student Pickleball Federation will hold the first All Japan Student Pickleball Championships over two days, September 9 and 10, in Toyosu, Tokyo. With TBS supporting the event, players of university age will compete for the title of student champion of Japan. University pickleball, which has come in through taster sessions and social play, now has a stage where results are contested.
The first student championships open in Toyosu on September 9 and 10
The event's full name is the 1st All Japan Student Pickleball Championships Supported by TBS. It runs from Wednesday, September 9 to Thursday, September 10, 2026, with students from across the country gathering in Toyosu to decide the first student champions. On day one, reception opens at noon and play starts at 13:00. Men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles are scheduled, and day two continues with an inter-university team competition.
A national championship limited to students has few precedents in Japanese pickleball. By naming a student champion of Japan for university players, it moves the sport up a step.
Hosted by the All Japan Student Pickleball Federation, with TBS supporting
The host is the All Japan Student Pickleball Federation, with the broadcaster TBS listed in a supporting role. This spring TBS was involved in bringing one of the world's largest pro tours to Tokyo as the PPA ASIA 500 Sansan TOKYO OPEN 2026 Produced by TBS, and it has also run Pickleball Park, a joint project with Mitsui Fudosan. After pro events and facility building, media capital and reach are now turning toward competitive play at student level.
When a broadcaster backs a student event, video and exposure are designed in from the start. That sets it apart from outreach events meant to widen the base: student matches are handled as a spectacle built on winning and losing.
The venue is PICKLEBALL PARK TOYOSU, opening on the 9th, with four outdoor hard courts
舞台になるのは、同じ9月9日に開業する屋外ハードコート4面のピックルボール専用コート「PICKLEBALL PARK TOYOSU」だ。江東区豊洲のTHE DOG PARK TOYOSU内に屋外ハードコート4面を備え、朝6時から夜22時まで開ける。三井不動産が手がけるこのコートは、開業初日に学生選手権を当てることで、施設のお披露目と競技の発信を一本にまとめた。詳しくは豊洲のドッグパークに開く屋外4面の常設コートas well.
Four outdoor courts have to hold three doubles events and an inter-university competition across two days. The organizers will need to tighten the draw and the running order, and as a first job for a new permanent facility it is a demanding schedule.
Day one is three doubles events, day two the inter-university team competition
Day one, the 9th, has men's and women's doubles plus mixed doubles, measuring individual and pair strength. Pickleball's competitive center is in doubles, where the partnership between two players and the exchange at the net decide matches. How organized an attack student pairs can show is the thing to watch.
Day two, the 10th, moves to the inter-university competition, with players carrying their schools. Beyond individual strength, the depth to field several pairs is tested. Placing individual events and then a team event in sequence is close to the format used by student championships in baseball and volleyball, and looks designed with the framework of student sport in mind.
From the campus league’s “experience” to a place where results count
University pickleball has been pulled along by events with a strong social flavor. PBP CAMPUS LEAGUE, which features schools such as Keio University and Aoyama Gakuin University, has been staged at Miyashita Park and Nihonbashi and puts enjoying the game with friends up front, drawing on fashion and social-media culture. The design keeps the entry point light to raise the core fans of the future, valuing the energy of the occasion over the result.
These student championships are not an extension of that but sit in a different layer. As competition for the title of student champion of Japan, they leave records and titles behind. With experience-led leagues holding the entry point and the championships providing a peak, the student pathway now has two tiers. Only with both in place is there a visible route from starting for fun to becoming a competitor.
Rapid growth in participation is pushing student events along
Behind the sport's spread to the university generation is growth in the domestic market. Private market research estimates that participation in Japan, in the tens of thousands in 2025, has grown past 300,000 in 2026. The ease of starting with a paddle, a ball and limited space appears to have reached younger players.
Governing bodies have also been reorganized. In spring 2026 the Japan Pickleball Association (JPA) and the Pickleball Japan Federation (PJF), a general incorporated foundation, merged, and the new body Pickleball Japan began operating. With a single point of contact for promotion and high performance, development at student age and the standing of events are easier to organize. The student championships have launched at a moment when market growth and organizational consolidation overlapped.
University teams and circles, and the spread into schools
What holds up a championship is the everyday setting. Universities such as Mimasaka University have created pickleball as an athletic department club, and university and community circles nationwide are growing in number. When an environment for continuing the sport exists on campus, the pool of students aiming at the championships builds up.
The sport is reaching younger school levels as well. In Hamamatsu, paddles are being handed out to elementary and junior high schools across the city, and it is spreading as something that can be enjoyed in a gymnasium even in a season when extreme heat makes outdoor exercise hard (352 paddles for 44 schools in Hamamatsu). Teenagers are coming through too, with teenage players making the draw at a pro tour event in Tokyo (the teenagers who took the court at the Tokyo Open). Schools and circles are building the base, with the student championships set on top of it.
What facility operators see: weekday daytime demand and student communities
For court operators, this event is a case study in weekday use. Both the 9th and the 10th are weekdays, and matches run from midday into the evening. Because it does not overlap with general bookings, which cluster on weekends, filling weekday daytime gaps with a student event is useful reference material for facilities worried about utilization.
Holding a student community is also worth something. If university circles and clubs use a site as their base, repeat visits and word of mouth follow, and it connects to players who keep going after graduation. In Toyosu, where membership courts are opening one after another, whether students can be secured early will shape attendance over the medium and long term. Putting the student championships on opening day reads as a move that aims at both giving the facility a character and forming a community.
What a student champion leaves behind for player development in Japan
Once a peak exists, development has a target. With student champion of Japan as a destination, university circles and clubs can picture an event beyond practice, and high school players and younger can picture somewhere to go after they enroll. If it does not stop at the first edition but continues, spreads to the regions and connects to international events, a new student layer will take root in Japanese pickleball.
The two days in Toyosu that decide the first champions will be recorded as the day competitive play began for the university generation. Whether the base widened by schools and circles connects to the peak of a championship: the first answer comes on September 9 and 10.
Source:ronshoal pickleball／Mitsui Fudosan PICKLEBALL PARK TOYOSU opening release／Pickleball Japan (Pickleball Japan Federation)／Sansan and TBS PPA ASIA 500 TOKYO OPEN 2026 release
