After months of waiting, it’s finally here! The newest M-League season has finally begun! With a new team and new players, M-League excitement has never been greater. And the games this week did not disappoint. This week, we had three Ura 3 wins in a single game, newcomers winning in their debuts and an incredible surprise on the very first day!
There was so much action this week, so let’s just jump right into it, shall we?
Opening Ceremony
Fans gathered at the Bellesalle Shiodome to watch the very first day of the M-League 2025-26 season. With every moment of cheering, you could feel it come alive. The MC for the night was Hayashi Misaki.
After some brief introductions, each of the teams (going in reverse standings order from last season) came into the hall and onto the stage. The team captain of each team carried a flag with the team’s logo on it.
The final team, the championship-winning Sega Sammy Phoenix, came into the hall carrying their championship plate. Once they got on stage, M-League founder and chairman Fujita Susumu joined them. Team captain Kayamori Sayaka returned the plate back to the chairman, placing it back on the pedestal to symbolically mark the start of a new season.
After a few words from each of the teams and from Fujita Susumu, everyone on stage did a big cheer and the M-League 2025-26 season was officially opened!
On September 1, 2025 M-League revealed the uniforms that will be used for the upcoming 2025-26 season.
The M-League 2025-26 season begins on September 15, 2025.
Akasaka Drivens
2024-25
→
2025-26
The Akasaka Drivens are choosing to go a bit bolder this year, going with a more pronounced checker pattern with a brighter neon green. Within the darker patches of the checker pattern is a diagonal tartan pattern.
The Akasaka Drivens uniform remains the only one without any corporate logos (aside from the team logo and the sportswear company Mizuno [which is on all the clothing of every team]).
The Beast X have chosen to take an interesting approach to their uniform, placing the team name near the bottom of the shirt and their biggest sponsor, auPAY, in the centre where the team name would normally be.
The team maintains its camouflage design, but restricts it to the shoulds, arms and bottom of the shirt. The team name is also written in camouflage instead of the regular team logo. The rest of the shirt is white.
Earth Jets
2024-25
→
2025-26
With the Earth Jets making their M-League debut, they are also debuting their uniform. Their main design is a net-like lattice in front of a green base. In the centre is the Earth Jets logo with corporate sponsors above and below. Corporate sponsors are also found on the sleeves.
The left sleeve features a single green stripe, while the right sleeve has a single red stripe.
EX Furinkazan
2024-25
→
2025-26
The EX Furinkazan uniform has a more geometric look this season, featuring red triangles as the base background of the uniform. The sponsors on the uniforms no longer have a white background behind it. There is also a star just above the final N on the uniform, possibly to indicate that the team has won the championship once before (2020-21 season).
The Kadokawa Sakura Knights have chosen to feature blue more on their uniform, putting a stripe on the sleeves and making it their collar colour. The rest of the uniform is still mostly black except for the white sleeves and the stripes and sakura blossoms on the right side.
Aside from the new logo, the Konami Mahjong Fight Club jersey has a bit more blue and light red (almost pink) on the sleeves and the sides. There are also some additional sponsors on the jersey as well.
Team Raiden‘s overall design is relatively unchanged at first look aside from the brighter yellow on the sides. However, when you look more closely, you can see the lightning bolt shape all throughout the dark sections of the jersey.
U-Next Pirates
2024-25
→
2025-26
The U-Next Pirates uniform still features their signature blue look,, though the overall design now has horizontal zigzag lines representing waves. These waves are said to symbolize “eternity, challenge, achievement, and good fortune”.
On August 8, 2025, M-League released the schedule for the upcoming 2025-26 season. They also announced additions and adjustments to both the team and individual award prizes.
New Prizes
Starting in the 2025-26 season, the top prize for the championship winning team will be increased to ¥70,000,000 (up from ¥50,000,000 the previous season). In addition, the 4th place team in the finals will now receve a prize of ¥5,000,000. The prize for 2nd place and 3rd place in the finals will remain at ¥20,000,000 and ¥10,000,000, respectively. The prize for the top team in the regular season remains at ¥3,000,000.
For the individual awards, there is now a new award: most 1sts. The player with the most 1sts in the regular season will receive a ¥1,000,000 prize. This is in addition to the existing MVP award (¥2,000,000), highest hanchan (¥1,000,000) and 4th avoidance award (¥1,000,000).
Starting this season, players must play a minimum of 20 games and a maximum of 40 games, up from the previous 10 game minimum and down from the previous 45 game maximum. The 20-game minimum is also the minimum number of games to be eligible for the individual awards.
Schedule
With the addition of the Earth Jets, M-League has increased the number of games during the regular season to 300 games total (120 games per team).
To accomodate this, M-League will have simultaneous games being played on Thursdays and Fridays from September 25 to February 20.
The format of the semifinals and the finals will remain the same. The top 6 teams in the regular season will play 30 games total (20 games each). The top 4 teams from the semifinals will then go on and play 16 games to determine the champion.
The M-League 2025-26 regular season will start on Monday, September 15, 2025.
For your convenience, I have created a Google Calendar of the schedule (with times in JST), as well as one for each team. There is also an iCalendar (.ics) file that you can download to put the schedule on your computer’s calendar.
Any mistakes are purely my own. If there is any discrepancy between the calendar and the official M-League schedule, the official M-League schedule is correct.
On June 30, 2025, the M-League 2025-26 Draft took place, where nine players across four teams were chosen to compete on the M-League stage. From young and old, new and returning faces, let’s take a look at the players who will be playing on the M-League stage next season.
The M-League 2025-26 Draft is in just a few days! Today, we’ll take a look at everything you need to know about the draft, as well as some potential candidates that we’re keeping an eye on.
The Draft
The M-League 2025-26 Draft will take place on June 30 starting at 17:00 JST. It will be broadcast live on the ABEMA Mahjong Channel. The broadcast is expected to last 90 minutes and is likely to also include interviews from the managers who drafted.
Drafting Order
With the addition of the Earth Jets this season, they will have the opportunity to draft first. Afterwards, the remaining teams that have vacancies in their roster will pick one player each, going in reverse standings order of the 2024-25 season. This process repeats until all vancancies have been filled.
Earth Jets (1st pick)
Earth Jets (2nd pick)
Earth Jets (3rd pick)
Earth Jets (4th pick)
Beast X (1st pick)
EX Furinkazan (1st pick)
Kadokawa Sakura Knights (1st pick)
Beast X (2nd pick)
EX Furinkazan (2nd pick)
1st
Earth Jets
2nd
Earth Jets
3rd
Earth Jets
4th
Earth Jets
5th
Beast X
6th
EX Furinkazan
7th
Kadokawa Sakura Knights
8th
Beast X
9th
EX Furinkazan
Potential Candidates
Drafting teams have the option to draft from any of the five supporting professional mahjong organizations:
Japan Professional Mahjong Federation (JPML)
Nihon Pro Mahjong (NPM)
Saikouisen Pro Mahjong (SPM)
Mahjong Union (Mu/μ!)
Real Mahjong Unit (RMU)
Note: M-League Watch predictions to follow. Teams are not limited to the players listed below, nor are they guarantees of any player being drafted.
Top players from the mahjong circuit are always top contenders for good results. Focus on choosing them is on the Earth Jets, who will have the first four picks in the draft. Some top pros and fan favourites include:
For all teams, there is some new excitement in the possibility of bringing back old faces. With the addition of former M-Leaguers, teams have the opportunity to both give the player a second chance and to bring the player’s fan base to the team. Former M-Leaguers that were dropped or have left in the past three years include:
For the Beast X, Shimoishi Geki (下石戟) (NPM) will fill in one of the two spots for winning the Beast X New Member Audition. For the other spot, other audition player
It’s only been 2 weeks since the end of the M-League 2024-25 season and there has been a lot of exciting news released! Today, we’ll go over all the news and the tournaments coming up during the offseason.
On April 16, 2025, the EX Furinkazan announced that they will be dropping Matsugase Takaya (松ヶ瀬隆弥) and Nikaido Rumi (二階堂瑠美) as players, with Rumi taking on a new role on the team. They also announced that they will hold a draft audition to determine who will fill one of the vacant spots on the team.
On May 19, 2025, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights announced that they will be dropping Uchikawa Kotaro from the team. It was also revealed that Uchikawa is the “Mister X” who was teased for the EX Furinkazan Audition.
On May 26, the league announced that the M-League 2025-26 Draft would be on June 30. They also put out some details about the upcoming season, including an increase to the grand prize from 50 million yen to 70 million yen.
The finals will be three games long and will be broadcast on the ABEMA Mahjong Channel starting at 15:00 JST.
Beast X Member Replacement Audition
Starting from May 22, 2025 until June 15, 2025, the Beast X will be holding an audition to determine one of their draft picks for the upcoming M-League 2025-26 Draft.
Six players, including two Beast X members at risk of being dropped, will be competing in the audition.
On May 18, May 25 (going from 2:30PM to 7:00PM on both days) and June 1 (going from 2:30PM to 8:00PM), the six player will play a total of 6 games each (9 games total) across the three days. The top four players will advance to the finals.
Carrying half of their score (rounded up) into the finals, the four finalists will play a total of 5 more games to determine the winner. The first three games will be on June 8 (going from 2:30PM to 7:00PM) , while the final two games will be on June 15 (going from 7:00PM to 11:00PM)
All games will be broadcast on the BS10 channel.
M-Tournament
On June 2, 2025, the third edition of the M-Tournament will begin.
The M-Tournament is a competition lasting around 2 months which will feature the 36 M-Leaguers and 24 selected pros. These competitors will compete individually for the championship.
Games played on Monday can be watched for free on the ABEMA Mahjong channel, while games on Fridays will require ABEMA Premium.
Format
1st Round: June 2, June 6, June 9, June 13, June 16, June 20, June 23 (15:00 JST)
56 players (14 tables)
32 M-Leaguers (all except the four members of the championship-winning Sega Sammy Phoenix [Kayamori Sayaka, Daigo Hiroshi, Takeuchi Genta, Asai Takaki])
24 selected pros
2 tables per day
2 hanchan per table, top 2 advance
2nd Round: July 7, July 11, July 14, July 18 (15:00 JST)
On May 22, 2025, the M-League Official Shop Online Store was officially launched.
Not to be confused with the M-League Official Online Store (which offers some M-League goods through the M-League website), the M-League Official Shop Online Store sells products that were perviously only available at the in-person M-League Official Shops in Maruken Junkudo Bookstores.
On May 28, 2025, the Earth Corporation revealed that the 10th M-League team’s name will be the “Earth Jets” (アースジェッツ). They also revealed their team logo and social media.
The Earth Jets logo is a crest with the main colours of red and green. A grid pattern is featured on the green segments, representing a bug net. The word “EARTH” is written on the top of the crest and “JETS” in the middle of a globe in the centre. A red chamelon with its tongue out lays on the top side, while a green one lays at the bottom of it. The symbols on the crest represent the “flexible offence and defence” that the team aims to play with, as well as “defeating opponents quickly and sharply”.
The team name and colour scheme are borrowed from the Earth Corporation product “Earth Jet” (アースジェット), a “fragrance-free, low-irritation” bug repellent.
On May 26, 2025, M-League released the outline for the upcoming season, as well as the date for the M-League 2025-26 Draft.
Player Replacement
Maintaining the rule from previous seasons, a team that fails to make the semifinals two years in a row will be forced to change their roster. Players who are dropped will not be able to be drafted by the same team during the draft.
Playoff Structure
With the addition of the new Earth Jets team, there will be 10 teams competing this season. The top 6 teams will advance to the semifinals, with the top 4 teams in the semifinals advancing to the finals.
Prize Money
Starting this upcoming season, the championship-winning team will win 70 million yen, up from 50 million yen in the previous years. 2nd and 3rd place will still win 20 million yen and 10 million yen, respectively.
As with last season, the 1st place team at the end of the regular season will win 3 million yen.
The individual prizes will be announced at a later date.
M-League Off-Season Schedule
June 16: Deadline to confirm current players’ contract status
June 30: M-League 2025-26 Draft
July: Confirming all contracts and team rosters
September: M-League 2025-26 start date
M-League 2025-26 Draft
The M-League 2025-26 Draft will take place on June 30, 2025, starting at 17:00 JST. The draft will be broadcast on the ABEMA Mahjong Channel.
Being a new team, the Earth Corporation Team will have the opportunity to draft all four of their players first. Afterwards, the remaining teams that have vacancies in their roster will pick one player each, going in reverse standings order of the 2024-25 season. This process repeats until all vancancies have been filled.
Tentatively called the “Earth Corporation Team”, the company will announce the team’s official name on May 28.
Earth Corporation is a company that manufactures and sells a variety of health and wellness products, from cleaning and hygiene products, to gardening and pest control supplies. This year, the company is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
This will be the 10th M-League team and the league’s third expansion team, after the Kadokawa Sakura Knights in the 2019-20 season and the Beast X (then known as Beast Japanext) in the 2023-24 season.
M-League Watch 