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Aug 16 How Many Runners Are in the Tokyo Marathon? Aug 16 How Many Runners Are in the Boston Marathon? Aug 16 How Many Runners Are in the New York City Marathon? Aug 15 Chicago Marathon 2027 Lottery: What to Expect Aug 15 Berlin Marathon 2027 Ballot: What to Expect Aug 15 How Many Runners Are in Each Marathon Major? Aug 13 Tokyo vs Berlin: Which Fast Major Can You Actually Get Into? Aug 12 How Marathon Charity Places Actually Work Aug 11 Why Do the Biggest Marathons Use a Lottery? Aug 11 Marathon Tour Operator Entry: The Guaranteed Bib Route
[ Wire ] · Dispatch · Aug 16

How Many Runners Are in the Tokyo Marathon?

The Tokyo Marathon fields a record 40,000 runners for its 2027, 20th-anniversary edition, up from a preliminary 38,773 starters in 2026. It is the only Abbott World Marathon Major in Asia, and its field has grown steadily since the first 2007 edition started 25,102 finishers, added to the Majors in 2013 as the sixth race.

How is the Tokyo Marathon field split?

Tokyo fills its field through several routes rather than one general ballot: the general entry lottery, which awards roughly 30,000 bibs to about 300,000 applicants for close to a 10% acceptance rate, a semi-elite RUN as ONE route for runners under 2:21 (men) or 2:52 (women) that bypasses the lottery entirely, the Run with Heart charity program at roughly ¥100,000, and a separate priority window for ONE TOKYO GLOBAL members. Entry fees differ by route: overseas lottery entrants pay roughly ¥23,300 only if drawn, while the semi-elite and charity routes carry their own separate fee structures. The 2027 edition alone sets aside 5,000 charity runner spots. The Foundation does not publish an exact place-by-place breakdown of how the full field divides across those routes.

Has the Tokyo Marathon field grown?

Yes, consistently. The field has expanded from 25,102 finishers at the 2007 debut to 37,480 entrants in 2025, a preliminary 38,773 starters in 2026, and a record 40,000 for the 2027 20th-anniversary race. Growth has mostly been absorbed by the charity, semi-elite and guaranteed-entry routes rather than flowing through to the general lottery, whose published acceptance rate has held near 10% for years even as the field itself got bigger. The 20-year trend, including the years the Foundation still released raw application counts, is on Tokyo Marathon ballot odds: 20 years of numbers.

What does field growth mean for your odds?

Not as much as the headline number suggests. A bigger field has not meaningfully loosened the general lottery, because charity and semi-elite allocations grow alongside it. Applying every year rather than every other year, holding a ONE TOKYO GLOBAL membership for the separate member draw, and checking whether a personal best clears the semi-elite standard in the qualification checker all move the needle more than field size does. The Marathon Ballot Simulator runs the compounding odds of applying across several years.

Tokyo's race page carries the current entry window, and how to enter the Tokyo Marathon covers the lottery, priority and charity routes in full.

How does Tokyo's field compare to the other Majors?

At a record 40,000 for 2027, Tokyo ties Sydney for the fifth-largest field of the eight Majors, ahead of only Boston's 30,000 and Cape Town's 27,000. Unlike most of the older Majors, Tokyo's field is still actively growing edition over edition rather than holding steady. How many runners are in each Marathon Major? ranks all eight side by side.

Sources: Tokyo Marathon Foundation, Tokyo Marathon Foundation: Entry Schedule

Sources Tokyo Marathon Foundation Field size figures from this site's own Tokyo race page and ballot history, sourced to the Tokyo Marathon Foundation's own past-edition pages (accessed August 16, 2026).