The average Japanese keirin professional earned prize money of almost US$ 100,000 in calendar year 2025, according to data published by the Japanese Keirin Association.
The JKA had 2,400 registered professional riders as of year-end 2025: 2,188 men and 212 women. The published averages include earnings for riders who retired during the year.
The nine elite SS-ranked riders were naturally the nine highest earners of the year, with an average of US$ 925,000. All nine earned over 100 million Japanese yen (US$ 640,000).
Kohei Gunji finished top of the list, with a little over US$ 1.6 million: more than half of which came from his win in December’s Grand Prix.
But even men in the lowest category, A3 – only permitted to ride in the lowest-graded FII events – averaged a very respectable US$ 59,000 for their efforts.
Prize money for the country’s 212 pro women averaged US$ 64,000.
Mina Sato topped the rankings, having won all the year’s big-money races: but she only raced 16 times during 2025, winning just under US$ 310,000, so her results don’t skew the average as much as you might expect. By comparison, second-ranked Aoi Kodama raced 80 times in 2025, winning US$ 162,000 in total prize money.
The top 20 women all earned over US$ 100,000.
An additional data table shows earnings within 10 million yen bands over the past ten years. It shows that the number of riders earning at least 10 million yen (US$ 64,000) is 2.63x higher than it was a decade ago. But it implies that a quarter of professionals earned less than 10 million in 2025.
Average earnings in 2025
| Class | Riders | Average JPY | Average USD | Average EUR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SS | 9 | 144,818,048 | 925,061 | 790,800 |
| S1 | 210 | 32,406,902 | 207,007 | 176,963 |
| S2 | 466 | 19,019,888 | 121,494 | 103,861 |
| A1 | 505 | 13,625,265 | 87,029 | 74,401 |
| A2 | 514 | 11,508,278 | 73,507 | 62,841 |
| A3 | 484 | 9,264,436 | 59,175 | 50,588 |
| Women | 212 | 10,072,099 | 64,334 | 54,998 |
| Grand Total | 2,400 | 15,145,411 | 96,739 | 82,701 |
Range of rider earnings, 2016-2025
| JP¥ | US$ | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ¥100m + | $640k + | 9 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| ¥90 – 100m | $576 – 640k | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| ¥80 – 90m | $512 – 576k | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| ¥70 – 80m | $448 – 512k | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| ¥60 – 70m | $384 – 448k | 5 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| ¥50 – 60m | $320 – 384k | 12 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| ¥40 – 50m | $256 – 320k | 20 | 21 | 14 | 14 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 8 |
| ¥30 – 40m | $192 – 256k | 74 | 60 | 55 | 28 | 25 | 9 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 14 |
| ¥20 – 30m | $128 – 192k | 252 | 215 | 194 | 153 | 107 | 62 | 90 | 88 | 83 | 83 |
| ¥10 – 20m | $64 – 128k | 1,427 | 1,392 | 1,315 | 1,126 | 726 | 504 | 722 | 590 | 583 | 566 |
| Total ¥10m + | Total $64k + | 1,806 | 1,717 | 1,602 | 1,339 | 875 | 590 | 852 | 720 | 708 | 686 |
Image: Flickr Stockphotokun