Official language: Japanese
Population: 127,433,494
Currency: Japanese Yen (JPY)

Current Exchange Rate
1 EUR = 132.66 JPY
1 GBP = 142.29 JPY
1 USD = 89.99 JPY

Sports Betting in Japan
Wagering on racing is one of the few legal forms of gambling in all of Japan – all other sports bets, including casino gambling, are banned. Race betting became legal in the early 1950s. Many types of races can be bet on, including bicycle, horse, boat, and motorcycle racing. Horse racing is the most popular, especially in Japan's larger cities, where race gambling is more popular than in the countryside.

Gambling on professional J-League football games is also possible in Japan as part of the national lottery system called Toto. Tickets are purchased only at special Toto booths. These booths are scarce and can be hard to find. They can be put in very strange places like electronic stores or used car lots. Toto is not quite like fixed-odds sports betting that sportsbooks usually offer; instead, it is more like a standard lottery that uses results from football matches.

Online Sports Betting in Japan
Online sports betting in Japan is limited to these forms of wagers. Race wagers can be placed online, and often people can even watch the races on the internet. Toto is also made available online. This is the full extent of online gambling in Japan as there are no legal Japanese internet sportsbooks. The government does not give license to any Japanese bookmakers to offer internet gambling.

Instead, players in Japan use foreign online sportsbooks. The Japanese government frowns upon players using foreign gambling websites, but because the sites are hosted in places where the government has no jurisdiction, not much can be done. A few of the larger international online bookmakers offer Japanese-language services and have special sites that cater to Japanese players. There is no talk among the government of Japan regarding the legalization of Japanese sportsbooks on the internet.