Japanese pickleball simply received a cleaner construction—and a clearer path ahead.
The Japan Pickleball Affiliation (JPA) and the Pickleball Japan Federation (PJF) have formally merged to create a single nationwide governing physique for the game. The merger settlement was signed on 13 March 2026, took official impact on 14 April 2026, and can function below the unified exterior title Pickleball Japan. The brand new construction was publicly introduced on 10 April 2026, or somewhat below three months since plans of the merger have been introduced in January of this yr.
The timing just isn’t coincidental. With pickleball’s international profile rising—and with Olympic inclusion more and more a real dialog fairly than a distant aspiration—having two separate governing our bodies in the identical nation is a structural legal responsibility that each organisations recognised wanted to be addressed. The merger removes that friction.
How It Will Be Run
Pickleball Japan operates below a newly established governance construction agreed upon by each organisations on equal phrases. Rika Riordan serves as Chairperson, with Shigeru Nishigami as Vice Chairperson and Gaku Koizumi as Secretary Common. The Government Administrators are Kento Sasaki, Koki Sugimoto, Yuki Tanaka, Chiharu Hachiya Lorenzoni, and Masahiro Marutani.
The brand new emblem — constructed on the present PJF design however incorporating the colors of the JPA—is a deliberate visible image of integration fairly than one organisation absorbing the opposite. Either side are current in it.
What Pickleball Japan Is Constructing In direction of
The unified physique’s core assertion is easy: pickleball—the game that connects individuals. The mission behind it’s to make use of the game to construct group, help wholesome lives, and make participation accessible no matter age, gender, expertise, or background.
Past the group dimension, Pickleball Japan can be explicitly constructing in direction of aggressive excellence—strengthening nationwide tournaments, creating athlete pathways, increasing collaboration with worldwide federations, and rising regional grassroots exercise concurrently. The 5 values underpinning the organisation—inclusiveness, connection, enjoyable and well-being, truthful play, and excellence—mirror an intent to steadiness the game’s social accessibility with real aggressive ambition.
With worldwide competitions and potential Olympic inclusion each on the horizon, the merger creates the sort of unified construction that worldwide federations and Olympic our bodies count on to see from a nationwide governing physique. A sport with two competing organisations talking in several instructions is a sport that struggles to be taken severely on the international stage. Pickleball Japan removes that drawback.
All competitions and certification methods deliberate for the 2026 monetary yr will proceed below the brand new construction, with present plans revered through the transition.
The Greater Image
Japan already has one of many strongest sporting cultures in Asia, with deep roots in racquet sports activities — desk tennis and badminton particularly—that make its participant base naturally receptive to pickleball’s format. A unified nationwide physique, correctly ruled and internationally linked, provides the game the infrastructure it must convert that potential into outcomes.
One governing physique. One voice. One route.
Japanese pickleball is coming into a brand new stage—and it has the construction to match the ambition.
Organisation Name: Pickleball Japan Federation
Head Workplace: 4-1-15 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Workplaces:
Tokyo Workplace: 3-27-14 Asakusabashi, Taito-ku, Tokyo Osaka Workplace: 3-6-3 Fushimi-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka
Official Web site: https://unified.japanpickleball.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pickleballjapanfederation/
Fb: https://www.fb.com/pickleballjapan
X: https://x.com/pjf_official
Contact: Pickleball Japan Federation (PJ) Secretariat E mail:[email protected]
