The rail around the feature table in the Paris Ballroom is packed. One of poker’s all-time greats, Nick Schulman, is chasing a ninth World Series of Poker bracelet, but most of the crowd isn’t there to watch him. They’re there for Koji Fujimoto.
When Fujimoto closes out the heads-up battle to defeat the Hall of Famer and capture his maiden WSOP bracelet, the room erupts. The cheers come from dozens of students who have traveled from Japan, where Fujimoto teaches poker free of charge.
Among them is Naoya Kihara. He doesn’t need the tuition.
Japan’s first WSOP bracelet winner has already enjoyed a summer for the ages, claiming back-to-back championship events just weeks earlier, fourteen years after he captured his first. He has also just been eliminated from the very final table Fujimoto has conquered, not that you’d know it.
wa (和) noun
Social harmony. The principle of prioritizing group cohesion, consensus, and mutual cooperation over individual assertion or confrontation.
Beaming throughout, Kihara celebrates alongside his countryman before stepping in as Fujimoto’s translator during the obligatory post-game interviews.
Just a short walk from the feature table, another scene is unfolding. A WSOP x World Wide Tour Special Freeroll is in full swing, and the field is overwhelmingly Japanese. The event has been organized by poker superstar and YouTuber Masato Yokosawa, whose channel boasts more than one million subscribers. He has brought 290 players from Japan to Las Vegas to play.
If you’re beginning to understand why Japan has produced three WSOP bracelet winners this summer, you’re not the only one. But don’t just take our word for it, hear it from the bracelet winners themselves…
Naoya Kihara & Ryutaro Suzuki
As Kihara watches his friend Fujimoto with evident pride, he is more than happy to reflect on the incredible summer Japan is enjoying at the WSOP. In many ways, as the country’s first bracelet winner, he may rightly be viewed as a trailblazer, though he is quick to dismiss any sense of ownership over what has followed.
“When I first won a bracelet, nobody had won one before. After that, it took two years for the second one. These days, every year, two Japanese bracelet winners… Winning the bracelet is getting more common, not special,” he says.
“Winning the bracelet is getting more common, not special.”
“Masato [Yokosawa] is bringing 300 players from Japan… because of that, poker in Japan is really growing now. Masato is promoting Texas Hold’em. I’m promoting mixed games.”
After winning the first two bracelets for Japan earlier in the summer, and having just been eliminated in 7th from the very final table he is now railing, he turns his attention to Fujimoto and the next generation. “I’m really happy Koji is my friend. He is teaching poker in Japan for free… I really respect him for that.”
Standing alongside Kihara is two-time WSOP champion Ryutaro Suzuki, who has been flagged as the strongest English speaker by a group of players gathered on the rail to a journalist searching for quotes. Suzuki does speak English, but relief comes quickly anyway as Kihara steps in to translate.
The pair had, in fact, been seated across from each other just weeks earlier in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship. Kihara went on to win the title, while Suzuki finished fourth.
“The World Series is a special place for me.”
Through his decorated translator, Suzuki reflects on Japan’s incredible momentum at the WSOP in 2026, noting that “Japanese players are having really good results this year. Poker is getting bigger in Japan.”
Looking back on his deep run in the championship 2-7 Lowball event, he adds, “I’m really happy to be playing mixed games… I got fourth place, but I still haven’t won a bracelet this year. I want to try harder next time. The World Series is a special place for me.”
He’ll certainly be back.
Koji Fujimoto
Japan’s 11th WSOP winner tells PokerNews’ David Salituro that, “Winning this bracelet makes my poker life get bigger. My dream was winning a bracelet in the World Series, and I did it. So I can go to the next step for my poker life.” The sentiment is translated once again by the fastidiously courteous Kihara.
He had just overcome an all-time great in Schulman to take down the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship, though there was no hint of being overawed by the occasion.
“I was playing, not alone, but all the students. So that makes me play better and lead to winning.”
“He’s a good player. I tried not to make any mistakes and just try to focus on every single hand,” he says, with a calmness that sits in contrast to the scale of the achievement, having beaten arguably the strongest mixed-game player in the world.
Fujimoto is a poker coach back home, and his students turned out in force to rail him at the final table. “I was playing, not alone, but all the students. So that makes me play better and lead to winning,” he said.
“I teach poker to the students for the last year. Three times a week. And I won the bracelet. So that makes the mixed games going up in Japan,” he adds. He doesn’t mention that the coaching he offers is entirely free of charge.
Masato Yokosawa
The most subscribed poker vlogger in the world is Masato “World Wide” Yokosawa, with over one million subscribers. Yes, one million.
This summer, he’s turned that following into something far more tangible, chartering a flight from Narita Airport to Las Vegas with almost 300 Japanese poker players on board.
Alongside the WSOP, he has organised a WSOP x World Wide Tour Special Freeroll for the group, with a large chunk of the players taking part, though he notes there is at least one American in the field.
His X account has documented the journey across the Pacific in real time, and it already feels like a poker trip for the ages. From Yokosawa giving his first-ever in-flight announcement to running a tournament “10,000 metres in the sky,” the trip looks fun. Very fun. It’s no wonder so many have made the journey.
Shiina Okamoto
Although Shiina Okamoto fell short in her bid to complete a remarkable three-peat in the WSOP $1,000 Ladies Championship this year, it is impossible to discuss Japan’s influence on the 2026 series without acknowledging the double champion.
“Most people don’t learn poker entirely on their own — they learn from someone. And choosing that person really matters.”
A quick scan through the WSOP Live app in this year’s record-breaking Ladies Championship showed a field awash with Japanese players, many of them looking to follow in Okamoto’s footsteps.
Like Kihara, Fujimoto, and Yokosawa, who are all conscious of the next generation of Japanese talent, Okamoto is too. She told PokerNews after her back-to-back victories last year: “Most people don’t learn poker entirely on their own — they learn from someone. And choosing that person really matters. It takes good judgment to find the right mentor, and I hope new players don’t make the mistake of learning from the wrong one.”
The strength of the Japanese turnout at this year’s Ladies Championship is a testament to Okamoto’s influence.
Eliot Thomas
Editor, Poker & Casino