Fans of combat sports know that the small nation of Japan is a fertile breeding ground for some of the most tenacious and skilled martial artists on the planet. Kickboxing fanatics will still happily recount famed Japanese kickboxer, Masato Kobayashi’s classic K1 Max victories over legendary fighters, Buakaw and Andy Souwer as a testament to the pedigree of Japanese fighters.
While the days of Masato are long over, a new breed of Japanese Kickboxers and Muay Thai fighters have taken to the world stage, dominating promotions and rankings with exemplary feats of skill, will, and heart. In this article, we are going to shine a spotlight on the best Japanese strikers of this generation. Each fighter has an impressive resume of titles and achievements, making ranking them individually an impossible feat.
So, in no particular order, here are the 9 of the best Japanese Muay Thai fighters and Kickboxers in the modern era.
Takeru Segawa’s journey to the top of the Kickboxing world was not a linear one. After a rocky start where he hung around with the wrong crowd, he was expelled from school. He took control of his life by traveling to Thailand to invest in his childhood love of martial arts. Originally a karate enthusiast, Segawa spent some time learning Thailand’s national sport Muay Thai, before returning to Japan to pursue a career as a professional kickboxer.
Segawa was incredibly successful in Japan and quickly became a household name becoming the Krush Featherweight Kickboxing Championship in 2013 and defending it three times before signing to the illustrious K1 promotion where he became the first and only 3-weight world champion in the promotion’s history.
In 2023, ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong made waves when he announced Segawa had signed a contract with the promotion and though his debut bout against Superlek for the Featherweight Kickboxing crown resulted in a unanimous defeat, he proved that he is a worthy adversary for anyone in the ONE kickboxing rankings.
2) Hiroki Akimoto
Hiroki Akimoto is no stranger to fans of ONE Championship. He has fought on the global promotion nine times so far and has previously held the Bantamweight Kickboxing title after defeating the reigning champion, Capitan Petchyindee in 2022.
The ONE Bantamweight crown wasn’t Hiroki’s first title. Before joining ONE Championship in 2019, he held 12 separate Karate titles as well as the coveted WBC Muay Thai world title, making him a multi-sport champion.
Hiroki has lost his past two bouts on ONE Championship, one of which saw him lose his Bantamweight title to Petchtanong Petchfergus in a split decision. Given the incredible 19-fight win streak he maintained against some of the best kickboxers on the Japanese stage prior to his career on ONE Championship, true fans still consider him a dangerous contender for the bantamweight crown.
3) Masaaki Noiri
Masaaki Noiri was handed a definitive defeat in his ONE Championship debut against former Lumpinee and Glory champion Sittichai Sitsongpeenong but that means little to the 61-fight veteran who has faced and defeated many of the world’s most elite kickboxers over the course of his 13-year professional career.
Noiri has captured the K1 World GP title twice, in two separate divisions as well as the Krush Welterweight title, making him a worthy challenger for anyone in ONE’s highly competitive featherweight kickboxing division.
4) Ryuki Matsuda
Ryuki Matsuda is only 18 years old and early in his professional Muay Thai and Kickboxing career, but after going undefeated in his first 14 bouts, it is safe to describe the young martial artist as a prodigy.
Successful as an amateur, he captured a number of karate and kickboxing titles before starting his professional career in 2021. Since then, he has amassed a number of high-octane finishes, including a second-round knockout victory over former Thailand Champion, Thanadet Tor.Pran49 in December 2022.
He would go on to win the 2023 Hoost Cup Flyweight Championship in March the following year, winning unanimously despite breaking his right hand during the course of the fight. However, his crowning achievement came in July this year when he defeated Rajadamnern Stadium Champion, Khunsueklek Boomdeksian for his Bantamweight Title with a stunning right cross in the second round. Khunsueklek was a highly touted favorite in the match, having already fought 92 times and being ranked pound-for-pound as the second-best Muay Thai fighter in the world at the time.
Considering Matsuda has already been able to best such an esteemed champion so early in his career, many fans are already starting to rank him as among the best of Japan’s current generation of strikers.
5) Hoshi Watanabe (Akari)
Better known by her ring moniker, Akari, Hoshi Watanabe is ranked as the second-best strawweight kickboxer in the female world rankings by Beyond Kickboxing.
Despite an underwhelming start to her amateur career with four straight losses, Akari persisted in her dream of becoming a champion and found her rhythm later in her career. She won her first 7 fights as a pro, which led to her claiming the Rise Mini-Flyweight tournament and allowed her to fight for the promotion-coveted belt on two separate occasions. While two of her three recorded losses as a pro have been recorded in these title bouts, the twenty-year-old is still fledgling in her career and is touted to continue as a force to be reckoned with in the global women’s kickboxing scene.
6) Taiki Naito
Former Shoot Boxing Bantamweight Champion, Taiki Naito, has been a force to be reckoned with since signing to ONE Championship in 2019. The multi-disciplined fighter has had a bespectacled career, originally fighting in Karate before moving to Shoot Boxing and eventually signing to ONE’s star-studded Bantamweight division where he has fought under both Muay Thai and Kickboxing rules.
Between 2019 and 2022 he faced the who’s-who of the ONE roster and captured wins over WBC Muay Thai champion Savvas Michael and Former ONE Flyweight Kickboxing Champion, Petchdam Petchyindee. He’s faced recent setbacks against the indomitable Dedduanglek MBK and Kongthoranee Sor Sommai and most recently, Elias Mahmoudi but he still remains the #3 ranked Kickboxing contender in his division, meaning he is still only one or two big wins away from claiming a ONE Championship title.
7) Tenshin Nasukawa
Tenshin Nasukawa is a generational talent whose name is likely to go down in history alongside the likes of Buakaw or Yodsanklai as being the best of his era.
Tenshin lives and breathes combat sports and has fought professionally as a boxer, kickboxer, and mixed martial artist throughout his title-laden career. He has fought a total of 52 times across the three disciplines and never faced defeat even though he has faced some of the best fighters of the modern era including Takeru Segawa and Rodtang Jitmuangnon.
Even in his amateur kickboxing career of 107 fights, Tenshin only tasted defeat on 5 occasions making him one of the most successful fighters, not just in the modern era, but in all of combat sports history.
8) Kaito Ono
Kaito Ono is ranked in the top 10 Lightweight Kickboxers in the world by Combat Press and is also the current Rise Middleweight World champion. In 2014, before he was a household name at the pinnacle of the 71kg divisions, Kaito started his professional career in the 62kg division and has spent the last 9 years fighting his way up the weight divisions with great success.
He has amassed 57 wins from 66 fights with over half of them coming by way of knockout. In the process, he faced a truly international cast of adversaries including Thai champion, Petchmorakot, Moroccan Glory Champion, Tyjani Beztati, and Australian phenomenon, Chad Collins.
9) Erika Gibo
Known simply as Erika to her fans, the 34-year-old southpaw was a late bloomer when it came to her fighting career, only turning professional in 2018 at the age of 28. Since turning pro, she has amassed 16 fights and 13 wins, beating contemporary, Akari, on two separate occasions to earn her spot as Beyond Kickboxing’s #1 ranked female strawweight in the world late last year.
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