What is actually available outside Japan
The short answer: the reliable, free, English-language way to follow a tournament from outside Japan is NHK WORLD-JAPAN’s “GRAND SUMO Highlights”, backed up by the Japan Sumo Association’s own YouTube channels. Live streaming of every bout exists, but it is a domestic Japanese service.
A daily highlights programme with English commentary, free, on NHK WORLD-JAPAN’s website and app. All fifteen days of a tournament are covered, each episode running roughly 27–29 minutes. The same section carries wrestler profiles, explainers on the techniques, and a beginner’s guide.
⚠️Episodes expire. Each tournament’s programmes stay up for about two weeks after the tournament ends, then come down — so if you want to watch a tournament, watch it while it is on or shortly after.
The association posts selected bouts from each day during a tournament. Free, no account needed.
The association’s official English-language channel, presented by Hiro Morita, who also commentates for NHK. History, culture and tournament coverage, in English.
Inside Japan, ABEMA streams every bout of every day live and free. This is a domestic service. ABEMA’s own help pages state that the service is available in most countries but that there are countries and programmes that cannot be viewed, and sumo has not been among the channels opened to viewers abroad.
If you are in Japan, ABEMA is the best way to watch: it is free, it needs no account, and it covers the whole day.
Why it stops at the border, and what people abroad do about it →
The website and the free app work anywhere. If you would rather watch on a television, NHK lists these carriers:
| Country | Carried by |
|---|---|
| United States | Member stations of PBS in many states; DIRECTV (channels 322 and 2049); cable and IPTV in some cities (Comcast/Xfinity, Spectrum, Cox, Verizon Fios among them); and the streaming services Jme, Sling TV, ZipWave and FreeCast. |
| Canada | Ignite TV (channel 122, in Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick) and Optik TV (British Columbia and Alberta, in the News International package). |
| United Kingdom | Freeview channel 272, Freesat channel 209, and Sky channel 507. |
| Australia | Foxtel and Flip TV. |
⚠️This table is NHK’s own list of carriers, read from their “ways to watch” pages in August 2026. We have not checked with each operator whether they still carry the channel, and whether you pay for it depends on your subscription — Freeview and Freesat are free to air, Sky and Foxtel are not.
⚠️Note also what this gets you: GRAND SUMO Highlights is an edited daily recap, not live coverage of the whole day. No official full-length live broadcast of a tournament is offered outside Japan by either NHK or the Japan Sumo Association.
Six tournaments are held each year, each lasting fifteen days, always starting and ending on a Sunday.
| Month | Tournament | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| January | Hatsu Basho | Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo |
| March | Haru Basho | EDION Arena, Osaka |
| May | Natsu Basho | Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo |
| July | Nagoya Basho | IG Arena, Nagoya |
| September | Aki Basho | Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo |
| November | Kyushu Basho | Fukuoka Kokusai Center, Fukuoka |
The next tournament is Aki Basho, September 2026, at Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo.
Tickets are sold by the Japan Sumo Association and go quickly — tournaments frequently sell out every day well before they begin. Buy through the association’s official English ticket service rather than a reseller.
Venue guides and how to get there (Japanese)
Sumo occasionally stages a full tournament outside Japan, but it is rare rather than a fixture. The Royal Albert Hall in London hosted one in October 2025 — only the second time in history that a Grand Sumo Tournament had been held abroad, the first being at the same venue in 1991. A two-day event was held at the Accor Arena in Paris in June 2026, marking the association’s centenary.
⚠️Both have already taken place, and neither the Japan Sumo Association nor the venues have announced another. If you are searching for tickets to these, there is nothing on sale: they are past events, not an annual series.