57th Hofu Yomiuri Marathon 2026

The 57th Hofu Yomiuri Marathon is one of Japan's established performance-focused road marathons and returns to Hofu, Yamaguchi on 6 December 2026. The race carries a World Athletics Elite Label and forms part of the MGC Series 2026-27, rated G1 for men and G3 for women. The 2026 event is also a Japanese men's selection race for the Beijing 2027 World Athletics Championships and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, while the 27th Japan Blind Women's Marathon is held alongside it.

The JAAF and World Athletics/AIMS certified 42.195 km course starts on the prefectural road in front of DaikyoNishikawa Square Salt Arena Hofu, turns in the Oaza Tajima area and finishes inside DaikyoNishikawa Square Athletics Stadium. For runners who finish the marathon, official intermediate records can also be certified at 15 km, 20 km, half marathon, 25 km and 30 km.

The gun goes at 10:40 JST and the overall limit is four hours. Six enforced checkpoints progressively close the course, beginning at 7.7 km after 44 minutes and ending at 41.8 km at 14:40. Runners who miss a checkpoint, or fall far enough behind to affect traffic or race operations, must stop and use the sweep transport.

This is not an unrestricted mass-entry marathon. The field is capped at 3,500, with 3,000 general places allocated by lottery, including a Yamaguchi resident allocation, plus separate hometown-tax, local, elite and IPC pathways. General entrants must be at least 19 and show a qualifying result from a certified race: marathon in 4:00:00 or faster, or half marathon in 1:33:00 or faster, from the organiser's eligible period. The main general application window ran from 22 June to 6 July 2026 and is now closed.

There is no day-before registration. The organiser says the Participation Guide, athlete bib and timing chip are sent about two weeks before race day. On 6 December, participants complete QR-code reception at Salt Arena from 07:30 to 10:00. The official awards programme covers leading general and IPC runners, selected age groups, top Yamaguchi athletes, a rookie award, an international goodwill award and an invited-athlete fighting spirit award.