Yuta Wakimoto won Sunday’s S Class final at Japan’s four-day Kokura Keirin Festival, and a prize of 47 million yen – just over US$ 300,000.

But perhaps more importantly, as a winner of a G1 event, it confirmed his spot in the Keirin Grand Prix on December 30, with the winner of the one-off race picking up 133 million yen – US$ 860,000.

There are nine spots available at the Grand Prix: they go to the winners of the six G1 ‘major’ festivals, with the remaining spaces filled by the highest money-earners.

Conveniently, the nine Grand Prix qualifiers this year are also the nine top money-earners for 2024. So it’s the perfect opportunity to look at exactly how much the stars of Japanese keirin can earn.

This year’s top earner is 33-year-old Yusaku Kosho, winner of the Grand Prix in 2021. His two G1 wins boosted his 2024 earnings to more than US$ 1.5 million so far.

And as More Cadence reports, if he wins the Grand Prix, he will break Wakimoto’s 2022 record for annual earnings – just over 300 million yen (US$ 1.9 million).

Wakimoto is ranked second this year, on 135 million yen (US$ 870,000), with one G1 and one G2 in 2024.

Third on 129 million yen (US$ 840,000) is Kota Hirahara, winner of one G1 event – and at 42, the oldest competitor in this year’s race. It will be his 14th Grand Prix, but so far he has never finished better than 2nd (2008 and 2021).

Shunsuke Iwamoto, the lowest ranked qualifier, has earned just under 80 million yen – a little over US$ 500,000. Competition for that final spot was particularly tight this year: Yuya Inubushi missed out by just 2.4 million yen (US$ 15,000).

Inubushi’s second place in Kokura ended the hopes of last year’s Grand Prix winner, Yuji Matsuura, who came into Sunday’s final on a winning streak: but third place meant he finishes 11th overall.

On December 29, UCI world keirin champion Mina Sato – winner of the women’s G1 event in Kokura – will seek to defend the title she won so decisively last year.

Sato’s keirin earnings are markedly lower than the six women she will face in Shizuoka, due to her focus on UCI competition.

Kaede Sakaguchi topped the 2024 earnings list with 23,624,000 yen – just over US$ 150,000. Yes, that’s one tenth of the top-earning man (so far).

The winner of the Girls Grand Prix will pick up 8 million yen (US$ 50,000): that’s less than the man who finishes last in the main event.

But it’s still more than the winners in the four UCI Track Champions League categories will take home: just € 25,000 for five nights’ work.