Data published by the JKA, the governing body for keirin racing in Japan, shows that betting turnover rose by 11% in the past 12 months.

A total of 1.328 trillion yen, or 8.886 billion US dollars, was wagered in the year to 31 March 2025, according to provisional figures published with remarkable efficiency on 1 April. This total includes traditional JKA racing, and the more modern Pist6 format operating from the 250m track at Chiba.

Keirin has seen steady growth since the Covid lockdown of 2020, after a relatively flat period in the 2010s. Figures posted by MoreCadence show that the total in 2024-25 is a little more than double the 2019-20 total of 660 billion yen, just five years ago.

For context, horse-racing in the UK – which is of a broadly similar scale to keirin in Japan – fell by 6.8% compared with last year, and 16.5% compared with two years ago.