Hakone Ekiden 2025

Live Stream, TV Coverage, Route, Start Time, Schedule

The Hakone Ekiden returns once again this new year, starting the year with the traditional Japanese trial of endurance.

Hakone Ekiden is a famous Japanese endurance relay marathon race that takes place in between Tokyo and Hakone over the first couple of days of the new year each January.

The full official title of the race is the Tokyo-Hakone Round Trip College Ekiden Race but the shorter, more colloquial version is more commonly applied.

The race has been taking place since 1920 and covers a distance of almost 220km, divided into 5 sections in each direction. Each section is run relay style by a fresh athlete, making each team 10 runners strong in total.

The popularity of the race has grown exponentially over the years, perhaps in tune with the Japanese admiration of extreme endurance, and is currently watched by an estimated 1 million spectators lining the course route, along with many millions more watching on the live national TV coverage.

Dates & Schedule

The Hakone Ekiden takes place on the 2nd and 3rd of January. Full schedule can be found here.

TV & Live Streaming

The Hakone Ekiden is televised live each year by Nippon TV and watched by a large audience in Japan. There has in previous years also been a live streaming version of this coverage available online, we will post the link here as and when it becomes available.

This site offers various ways to access Japanese TV from abroad and online, but be aware that some options require subscriptions and not having tested them personally we can't vouch for the quality of the streams:

Japanese TV streams

There is TV coverage in japan of course, although the language difference makes it difficult to ascertain whether these boradcasts are also available online:

Hakone Ekiden on TV

You can also watch coverage of previous events via the always excellent Youtube, where there are highlights of many of the races, with coverage from this year sure to follow soon:

Hakone Ekiden videos

Hotels and Accommodation

Hotel accommodation in Tokyo is always on the pricey side, but January is one of the more reasonable months, especially once new year is out of the way so you may be able to find a bargain if you are planning on visiting for the Hakone Ekiden. Staying in Hakone or one of the smaller towns along the route would obviously be cheaper still.

You can check out availability and make online reservations for local hotels here.

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