# JKA data reveals average earnings of Japanese keirin professionals

*By Simon | January 6, 2026*

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![Japanese yen banknotes](https://globalkeirin.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/jpy.jpg)

## 󠀁[JKA data reveals average earnings of Japanese keirin professionals](https://globalkeirin.com/2026/01/jka-data-reveals-average-earnings-of-japanese-keirin-professionals/)󠁿

6 January 2026

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](https://keirin.jp/pc/prizeranking?rsbt=0&rnen=2025&rflg=0&sei=0), with a
little over US$ 1.6 million: more than half of which came from his
[win in December’s Grand Prix](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/12/gunji-solos-to-his-first-grand-prix-success/)
.

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](https://globalkeirin.com/rider/mina-sato/) topped the
[rankings](https://keirin.jp/pc/prizeranking?rsbt=0&rnen=2025&rflg=0&sei=1),
having
[won all the year’s big-money races](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/12/satos-stellar-streak-continues-with-win-in-girls-grand-prix/)
: 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 |

_Source: keirin.jp (PDF) Conversions at exchange rates at time of publication_

## 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 |

_Source: keirin.jp (PDF) – US$ calculated based on today’s rate (¥1 = $0.0064)_

_Image: [Flickr Stockphotokun](https://www.flickr.com/photos/stockjapan/50725206222)_

**Categories:** Original
**Tags:** japan