With loads of young talent, Japan is a rising power on the LPGA

Miyu Yamashita soaked in the champagne and emotions of winning her first major at the AIG Women’s Open in Wales over the summer. For the 24-year-old rookie, it was also her first victory overall, and she’s one of five Japanese golfers who have won on the LPGA Tour this season, a contingent of immensely talented young golfers who entered the tour with a big splash this season. They seem anything but a flash in the pan, and this could be the start of a lot of 18th green parties thrown by Japanese golfers for years to come.

If the photo of that celebration in Royal Porthcawl, where Yamashita’s countrywomen surrounded her with bottles of bubbly, looked familiar, it’s because Japanese golfers are inspired to continue the trend.

“To have so many Japanese players doing so well at the moment is something that provides motivation for me and keeps me going,” Yamashita said through an interpreter at the Women's Open. “For us all to support each other is something that I'm really looking forward to in the future as well.”

Two of the five majors this season were won by Japanese players, with Mao Saigo capturing April's Chevron Championship before Yamashita's victory in July, and this week, those two are among the four golfers on the Japan team in the Hanwha LifePlus International Crown at New Korea Country Club, just outside of Seoul. They’ll join Rio Takeda and Ayaka Furue to round out Japan’s star-studded team.

“I think Japan is a very strong team,” said World No. 4 Lydia Ko, who is playing for the World team. “I think this is the most amount of Japanese winners I've seen on tour. Just the level of golf for women's golf in Japan is just so high. Outside of just the four players this week, the competition for the four spots has been very tight. Japan is going to be strong.”

There are 14 players from Japan on the LPGA, and the five who have won this season are Saigo, Yamashita, Takeda and identical twin rookies Chisato Iwai and Akie Iwai. Between them, they have an impressive 34 top-10s in 2025.

Drawing on the experience of winning was surely a breeze for Yamashita, who won 13 times on the LPGA of Japan Tour. Her fellow countrywomen have benefitted from the same development. The Iwais combined to win 14 times on the Japanese tour, so it’s not shocking each has one victory on the LPGA this year. They’ve contended in plenty of others, too.

After Akie Iwai won the Portland Classic, she pointed to other Japanese golfers winning as motivation for her to step into the winner’s circle. That included her sister, who had the first win in the family at the Riviera Maya Open.

“Everybody plays well this year, so everything inspired me to play better this year,” Akie Iwai said.

The LPGA of Japan Tour has set up these twenty-somethings for success after graduating to the LPGA—something that many Japanese players in the past didn't aspire to.

“There have been so many talented players in Japan for years, still many of them stayed in Japan before,” said Reiko Takekawa, a writer who has covered Japanese golfers for more than three decades. “The JLPGA is very mature, with over 35 tournaments every year, and it’s very popular, with big fans, and good money. You can have a good life in Japan. However, some of them choose to play in the U.S. and win here. Therefore, they start feeling that if she can do it, I can do it.”

A reason for making the jump to the LPGA can be linked, in part, to Hinako Shibuno. She won the AIG Women’s Open in 2019 as a 20-year-old and became an instant star in her home country.

“Hinako’s AIG win was huge news in Japan in 2019, which inspired many kids, junior golfers,” Takekawa said. “Like Rio Takeda, they started dreaming of winning the majors. It’s been six years, and they are playing in the U.S. now.”

At the time of her major win, Shibuno was just the second Japanese woman to capture an LPGA major, and the first had come decades earlier, with Hisako Higuchi winning the 1977 Women’s PGA Championship. She’s a legend in Japan, having won 69 times on the LPGA of Japan Tour, which is still the most by any player.

Yuka Saso followed Shibuno with major victories in the U.S. Women’s Open in 2021 and 2024, and Furue won the Amundi Evian Championship last year. Another top Japanese player, Nasa Hataoka, has six LPGA wins at the age of 26, and she’s come agonizingly close to winning the U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, losing both in playoffs.

Shibuno’s star power arguably still shines the brightest in Japan these days, even with the influx of young talent and an off year. The 26-year-old has struggled this season, missing 12 cuts in 22 events while notching only one top-10 finish.

“She is very friendly to the fans, gives her autograph and takes pictures with everyone, and even tells them ‘thank you for coming and cheering me,’” Takekawa said. “She’s also very open-minded to [media], she almost rarely refuses to talk to us post-round. In fact, she is very fun to talk to, joking around, and very honest too.”

The diminutive Ai Miyazato, now 40, was transformational, winning on the JLPGA as an amateur before scoring nine LPGA wins and spending time at World No. 1 prior to retiring in 2017. Two of her victories came in the Evian Masters before it became an LPGA major.

“Ai was kind of small, but she had great accuracy and really putted well when she was winning tournaments,” Takekawa said. “She was like an idol, a superstar in Japan. She had probably more than 10 endorsements, so that you saw her everywhere—ads, billboards, TV commercials, every day. All Japanese players in the LPGA now, they all look up Ai, and their parents, too.

“Because of Ai’s success, a lot of golf courses, including some of the private ones, opened for junior golfers. Golf used to be more pleasure for businessmen or older people. I am sure Tiger Woods influenced in many ways, but Ai did too.”

The JLPGA Tour has morphed with the rising popularity of golf in Japan. Now that more players have dreams and aspirations to play on the LPGA, they want their tournaments to help prepare them to qualify. The 23-year-old Iwai sisters, for example, both won three times each last season and earned their tour cards by finishing in the top five of the final LPGA Q-Series qualifying in December.

According to JLPGA representatives, the tour has sought to increasingly mirror the environment of the LPGA, while the JLPGA’s developmental Step-Up Tour aspires to be like the big circuit in Japan. Some of the tour enhancements include more tournament days (18 of the JLPGA’s 36 events are now four rounds,  up from three), improved practice facilities at tournament venues, diversified course setups, more statistical data, a re-ranking system during the season, and changes in qualification criteria from prize money ranking to performance-based points ranking.

“I believe the biggest contributing factor is the high level of ambition each player holds,” a JLPGA spokerperson said. “With their eyes set on the global stage, they are constantly challenging one another and striving to reach greater heights. The JLPGA has been committed to strengthening the tour since 2013, with the overarching goal of ‘winning on the global stage.’ We've worked for over a decade to implement various initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality and competitiveness of our tour.”

It all adds up to helping infuse the LPGA with young players who are hungry to win. That could mean another celebration of Japanese golfers raising a team trophy and soaking in champagne.