52 Japanese male sport wrestlers

Mitsuo Yoshida , better known by his ring name Riki Choshu , is a Japanese retired professional wrestler who is best known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both a wrestler and a booker. He is considered one of Japan’s most influential wrestlers for his work in the 1980s and 1990s and is known as the first wrestler to popularize the Sasori-Gatame, better known in English as the Scorpion Deathlock or Sharpshooter. After leaving NJPW in 2002, he formed Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling (WJ), but eventually returned to New Japan in October 2005 as a site foreman, booker and part-time wrestler. Choshu once again left NJPW in 2010 and primarily worked in Tatsumi Fujinami’s Dradition, as well as his own self-produced Power Hall events as a freelancer. Choshu was a second generation Zainichi Korean until his naturalization in 2016.

Jiichiro Date was a Japanese freestyle wrestler. He won the world cup in 1973 and an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and placed third at the 1975 World Championships.

Hideo Fujimoto is a retired Greco-Roman wrestler from Japan. He competed at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics and won a silver medal in 1968, placing fourth in 1972. At the world championships he won a gold medal in 1970 and bronze medals in 1967 and 1971.

Tsutomu Fujimura is an amateur Japanese Greco-Roman wrestler, who competes in the men's welterweight category. He won a bronze medal in his weight category at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. Fujimura is a member of the wrestling team for The Self-Defence Forces of Japan, under his personal coach Masaki Iimuro, and also, an economics graduate at Tokuyama University.

Yuhi Fujinami is a Japanese freestyle wrestler. He won bronze medals at the 2017 World Championships and 2018 Asian Games. He missed the 2018 World Championships due to an injury.

Kazuyuki Fujita is a Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and a former amateur wrestler. He has most recently fought in Road FC, but is also known for his work in the PRIDE Fighting Championships, K-1, Rizin Fighting Federation, and World Victory Road.

Yoshihiro Fujita is a retired Japanese Greco-Roman wrestler. He won a silver medal at the 1974 Asian Games and finished in seventh place at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Tomiaki Fukuda is a Japanese sports official and retired freestyle wrestler who won the world bantamweight title in 1965. He is vice president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, where he heads the National Training Center Commission. He is also president of Japan Wrestling Federation and vice president of the International Federation of Associated Wrestling (FILA). He served as chef de mission for the Japanese teams at the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2005 East Asian Games.

Tsutomu Hanahara is a retired Japanese wrestler who won a gold medal in the flyweight class at the 1964 Olympics. He competed at the 1958 and 1967 world championships and finished in sixth and third place, respectively.

Daisuke Harada is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is the current GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion in his sixth reign, with Hajime Ohara. He’s also a four-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion.

Hiroshi Hase is a Japanese politician who served as the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology under Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. Prior to his appointment in the Cabinet, he also served as a member of the House of Representatives of the National Diet, representing the 1st district of Ishikawa Prefecture.

Toshihiro Hasegawa is a Japanese freestyle wrestler. He won one of the bronze medals in the men's 61 kg event at the 2021 World Wrestling Championships held in Oslo, Norway.

Ichiro Hatta was a Japanese judoka and wrestler. He was instrumental in founding the Japanese Amateur Wrestling Association and bringing the 1964 Olympics to Japan.

Rei Higuchi is a Japanese freestyle wrestler who won a silver medal in the 57 kg division at the 2016 Olympics.

Iwao Horiuchi was a Japanese lightweight freestyle wrestler. He competed at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics and won a bronze medal in 1964. He also won a world title in 1963 and finished second in 1966. He died of diabetes in March 2015, aged 63.

Masamitsu Ichiguchi is a retired Japanese wrestler. He competed in the Greco-Roman bantamweight event at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and finished in seventh and first place, respectively. Earlier in 1962 he won the world championships and Asian Games in the same event.

Mitsuo Ikeda was a Japanese freestyle wrestler who won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics. Later he worked as a wrestling coach.

Takashi Irie is a retired Japanese light-flyweight freestyle wrestler. He won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics and a gold medal at the 1978 Asian Games, placing third in 1986.

Mitsuhiro Ishida is a retired Japanese mixed martial artist who competed in Shooto, Strikeforce, PRIDE, DREAM, and DEEP. A professional competitor from 2001 until 2011, Ishida also participated in the Yarennoka event in the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

Shohachi Ishii was a Japanese freestyle wrestler who won a gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He was the first Japanese gold medalist after World War II, the only Japanese gold medalist at the 1952 Olympics, and one of two Japanese medalists in wrestling at the 1952 Olympics, the other being flyweight Yushu Kitano, who won silver in freestyle.

Masaaki Kaneko is a retired Japanese featherweight freestyle wrestler. Between 1966 and 1968 he won all major titles, including gold medals at two world championships, and at the 1966 Asian and 1968 Olympic Games. He was inducted in the Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007.

Shigeru Kasahara is a retired Japanese lightweight freestyle wrestler. He won a gold medal at the 1954 Asian Games and a silver at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Kiyomi Kato is a retired Japanese flyweight freestyle wrestler. He won a gold medal at the 1972 Olympics and a silver medal at the 1970 Asian Games and placed sixth at the 1971 World Wrestling Championships.

Kazuo Katsuramoto is a retired Japanese freestyle wrestler. In 1954 he won the −79 kg event at the Asian Games and finished third at the world championships. He shared fifth place at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Shunichi Kawano was a Japanese heavyweight freestyle wrestler. He won a gold medal at the 1962 Asian Games and bronze medals at the 1962 World Championships and 1966 Asian Games. He competed at the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics with the best result of eighth place in 1960.

Eiichi Kazama was a Japanese wrestler. He competed in the men's freestyle lightweight at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Sadao Kazama is a retired welterweight Greco-Roman wrestler from Japan. He competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but was eliminated by Bertil Nyström in the third round.

Yushu Kitano was a Japanese freestyle wrestler. He won silver medals at the 1952 Olympics, 1954 World Championships and 1954 Asian Games. In retirement he worked as a wrestling coach and in this capacity attended the 1960 Olympics. In 2016, he died of a heart attack, aged 85.

Sumiyuki Kotani was a Japanese martial artist. He was a member of the 1932 Japanese Olympic wrestling team. He was one of the highest ranked judoka, and was awarded a 10th dan in April 1984 by the Kodokan. He was for a long time the oldest 10th dan, until Ichiro Abe was awarded the rank age of 83 years. Kotani studied at the Tokyo College of Education and studied judo directly under Jigoro Kano. As a young man he was known to take on any challenges. Kotani was very active in promoting judo throughout the world and was the director of the international division at the Kodokan for many years. He was also a professor at Tokai University. He was the Kodokan's top representative and vice president of the All Japan Judo Federation. He died on October 19, 1991.

Masayuki Matsubara is a retired Japanese freestyle wrestler. He won a silver medal at the 1960 Olympics and placed fifth at the 1961 World Championship.

Ryūtarō Matsumoto is a Japanese wrestler won a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Greco-Roman 60 kg category.

Kenshiro Matsunami is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Izumisano, Osaka, he attended Nippon Sport Science University, Eastern Michigan University and Nihon University. He was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1996 as a member of the New Frontier Party. After losing his seat in 2003, he was re-elected in 2005.

Atsuji Miyahara is a Japanese wrestler and Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling.

Yuji Nagata is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

Daisuke Nakamura is a Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and submission grappler, currently working for Pro Wrestling Noah. Having most recently competed in 2016, he has fought for DREAM, Strikeforce, M-1 Global, ZST, Cage Rage, PRIDE, Vale Tudo Japan, DEEP, K-1 and Cage Force promotions. He is the former DEEP Lightweight Champion. Nakamura is also known for his incredible armbar variations, with most of his wins coming by armbar, and is famous for his tributes to the shoot-style circuit, often wearing the style's signature kneeboots and short-tights in his fights.

Manabu Nakanishi is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler, who was primarily associated with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He is a one-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, one-time G1 Climax winner and three-time IWGP Tag Team Champion.

Akira Ōta is a Japanese former wrestler who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics, in the 1988 Summer Olympics, and in the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Shinobu Ota is a Japanese Greco-Roman wrestler and mixed martial artist. Throughout his career, he notably claimed the '16 Olympic Silver medal at 59kg, the '19 World Championship at 63kg, the '18 Asian Games Gold medal at 60kg and three Asian Championship medals.

Masanori Saito was a Japanese professional wrestler better known as Mr. Saito or Masa Saito (マサ斎藤), who wrestled for 33 years around the world. He had success as a singles wrestler, winning the AWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1990, and as a tag team wrestler with multiple partners in various National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territories.

Kazuhito Sakae is a Japanese wrestling coach and retired wrestler who won several medals in the 62 kg category at the Asian and world level between 1983 and 1989. Remarkably, at the 1983 Asian Wrestling Championships, he won a gold medal in the freestyle wrestling and a silver in the Greco-Roman wrestling. After retiring from competitions he worked as a national coach, training Saori Yoshida, Kaori Icho, Hitomi Obara, Chiharu Icho and Eri Tosaka, among others.

Kazushi Sakuraba is a Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and submission wrestler, currently signed to Rizin Fighting Federation and Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is one-half of the former GHC Tag Team Champions with Takashi Sugiura. He has also competed in traditional puroresu for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and shoot-style competition for UWFi and Kingdom Pro Wrestling (KPW). He has fought in MMA competition in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Pride Fighting Championships, Hero's and Dream. He is known as the "Gracie Hunter" or the "Gracie Killer" due to his wins over four members of the famed Gracie family: Royler Gracie, Renzo Gracie, Ryan Gracie, and Royce Gracie. Sakuraba is famous for beating 13 champions of different top MMA organizations; opponents who were often many weight-classes above him.

Shozo Sasahara is a retired Japanese freestyle wrestler who won a world title in 1954 and an Olympics gold medal in 1956. He was the flag bearer for Japan at the 1956 Games. During his career Sasahara won approximately 200 bouts. After retiring from competitions he worked as a national coach. His trainees included Osamu Watanabe.

Isuke Shinmen was a Japanese wrestler. He competed in the men's freestyle lightweight at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Genki Sudo is a singer, dancer, MMA fighter, and Japanese politician who serves as a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan in the House of Councillors since 2019. Between 1999 and 2006, Sudo was a professional athlete and then was in the entertainment industry from 2006 to 2019. He has since returned to his previous position in World Order as of the 11th of September 2021 where he is currently active.

Mitsuhisa Sunabe is a Japanese mixed martial artist. He is the current Pancrase Flyweight Champion and a former Pancrase Super Flyweight Champion.

Kohei Suwama is a Japanese professional wrestler better known simply as Suwama (諏訪魔). He is best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is former record seven-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and a six-time World Tag Team Champion. He is also part of the promotion's board of directors.

Yuji Takada is a retired Japanese flyweight freestyle wrestler. He competed at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics and won a gold and a bronze medal, respectively. Takada held the world title in 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1979. In 2005 he was inducted into the FILA Hall of Fame.

Tomomi "Tommy" Tsuruta , better known by his ring name Jumbo Tsuruta , was a Japanese professional wrestler who wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) for most of his career, and is well known for being the first ever Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, having won the PWF Heavyweight Championship, the NWA United National Championship, and the NWA International Heavyweight Championship, and unifying the three titles. He is also known for being one-half of the first World Tag Team Champions with Yoshiaki Yatsu, having won the NWA International Tag Team Championship and the PWF Tag Team Championship, and unifying the two titles.

Osamu Watanabe is a retired Japanese freestyle wrestler. In 1962, he debuted internationally and retired shortly after the 1964 Olympics. During his brief career Watanabe won all his few hundred bouts. He is considered one of the best wrestlers in Olympic history.

Hideaki Yanagida is a retired Japanese bantamweight freestyle wrestler. He won his event at the 1970 Asian Games, 1970 and 1971 world championships and 1972 Summer Olympics.

Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu is a Japanese wrestler. He won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, beating Sushil Kumar of India in the finals of the 66 kg Men's Freestyle Wrestling.

Yoshikatsu Yoshida is a retired Japanese freestyle wrestler. He won gold medals in the 52 kg category at the 1964 Summer Olympics.