Sports Bars · Tokyo
Best Sports Bars
in Tokyo
14 sports bars, ranked and reviewed by our editors. From Premier League viewing clubs in Roppongi to craft beer taprooms in Shibuya showing live sport from across the globe.
14 sports bars, ranked and reviewed by our editors. From Premier League viewing clubs in Roppongi to craft beer taprooms in Shibuya showing live sport from across the globe.
Tokyo's sports bar scene concentrates heavily in Roppongi, the neighbourhood that has always served the city's international population. But the past five years have seen quality venues open in Shibuya, Ebisu, and even Shinjuku. These are the 14 bars that do it properly.
The flagship of Japan's most trusted sports bar chain, and by some distance its best individual branch. The Hub Roppongi has 32 screens across 3 floors, showing Premier League, Champions League, NFL, NBA, and Nippon Professional Baseball simultaneously on different levels. The draft beer selection runs to 8 taps including Asahi Super Dry, Sapporo Classic, and Guinness. The English-speaking staff and bilingual menus make this the most accessible sports viewing experience in Tokyo for international visitors. The 16-seat private viewing booths can be reserved for major games and come with a food and drinks package. The kitchen serves until 2am and the full English breakfast at weekends is not an accident.
The British pub that Tokyo's expat community rallied around long before sports bars became fashionable in the city. Four floors in a wooden building on Rooftop Street in Ebisu, with 12 screens and a real commitment to showing English football at the correct time, which in Tokyo means some very early mornings. The cask ale selection is the most serious in Japan, and the landlord personally sources two guest ales per week from UK microbreweries.
The most American sports bar in Tokyo, which is exactly what it intends to be. Legends has the best NFL coverage in Japan, opening at 7am on Sunday mornings during the season for the early East Coast kickoffs. The American craft beer imports are the most comprehensive in the city, running to 60 bottles and 10 taps. The nachos are not a compromise.
The craft beer taproom near Shibuya station that has quietly developed one of Tokyo's most reliable sports viewing environments. 40 Japanese craft beer taps are the primary identity, but the 8 screens showing J.League, Champions League, and rugby have built a genuine sports crowd. The combination of excellent beer and sport viewed at a sensible volume attracts a local clientele that adds authenticity to the experience. Particularly good for rugby — the owner played for a club in Kanagawa.
The Shinjuku Irish pub that serves as the city's default for Six Nations and Rugby World Cup viewing. The Guinness is poured properly, the 10 screens include dedicated satellite dishes for Irish broadcasting, and the crowd on an Ireland or British Lions match day is as loud as anything outside Dublin. The Japanese locals who have become Six Nations converts over the years add an unexpected warmth to the atmosphere.
A more polished take on the sports bar format, with leather seating, cocktails alongside the beer, and a focus on the Japanese sporting calendar that most international bars ignore. Nippon Professional Baseball is shown on the primary screens during the season, with J.League football and domestic rugby on the secondary screens. The cocktail list is a full 30 drinks rather than an afterthought.
The sports bar that Nakameguro's creative class built for themselves. Bar Ichi operates as an izakaya hybrid: Japanese drinking food alongside craft beer and 6 screens showing a curation of sport that the owner selects based on quality rather than mainstream popularity. The Champions League and Wimbledon get the same treatment as a Yokohama Marinos derby. A bar for people who love sport rather than merely consume it.
The working Irish pub in the Roppongi Hills complex that has been consistent since 2004. The screens are numerous, the Guinness and Kilkenny are on tap, and the kitchen runs a genuine Sunday roast. For Premier League and Champions League, the Fiddler fills fast and the atmosphere on a big European night rivals what you find in an Irish city. The staff know their sport and their beer with equal confidence.
The most design-conscious sports bar in the city, where stadium seating meets cocktail craft in a three-floor rooftop venue near Omotesando Hills. The screens are 4K and the sound system is calibrated by a team that also works for Tokyo's jazz venues. The drinks programme is a full cocktail bar operation rather than a beer-only setup. Expensive relative to the Roppongi competition, but the experience justifies the gap.
The cheapest good sports bar in the city. The Gael charges approachable prices without compromising on screen count or beer quality, which makes it the first choice for residents rather than visitors. The Gaelic Games coverage in September draws the Irish community from across the Kanto region and creates the most unexpected sporting atmosphere you will find in Tokyo.
The sports bar for Ginza's business hotel crowd, which means it serves expensive cocktails alongside expensive whisky alongside Champions League and major tennis in a setting that would be more at home in a private members club than a conventional sports venue. The private dining booths for 8 people can be reserved with sports packages. For the expense account end of Tokyo sports viewing.
More entertainment venue than pure sports bar, Sports Monster adds pool tables, darts, table football, and a full arcade section to the standard screen formula. The result is the most social sports experience in Tokyo, where the gaps between games are as busy as the games themselves. The cocktail and beer list is competent without being distinguished. Best for group bookings.
Shibuya's answer to the Roppongi dominance of the Tokyo sports bar scene. Play Bar opened in 2019 and immediately positioned itself as the premium alternative, with 16 screens including a 3-metre centrepiece display, a cocktail programme built by a former Nobu Tokyo bartender, and a kitchen that runs a Japanese take on sports bar food. The Wagyu beef sliders have become a talking point independent of the sport.
The anti-Roppongi sports bar, run by a former professional cyclist who cares about cycling, football, and rugby in roughly that order. The Tour de France coverage is the best in Japan, the screens are fewer but better placed, and the Japanese craft beer selection is curated by someone who actually knows the brewers. The neighbourhood crowd of musicians and artists creates an atmosphere no chain bar can manufacture.
The international neighbourhood that built Tokyo's sports bar culture. Roppongi has the highest density of screens per block and the longest opening hours, typically running until 4am or later on weekends. The prices are higher than other areas but the convenience and opening times justify them for late games from Europe and America.
The newer generation of Tokyo sports bars gravitates toward Shibuya, where the younger Japanese audience for English football and American sports has grown fastest. The bars here are better designed, more cocktail-oriented, and priced for the local professional rather than the Roppongi expat circuit.
Shinjuku's Irish bars trade on the city's most committed rugby audience. The Six Nations and Rugby World Cup draw crowds to the Shinjuku pubs that exceed anything in Roppongi, and the local Japanese rugby fans who have been coming since the 2019 World Cup add genuine passion to the viewing experience.
The Ebisu area, residential and calmer than Roppongi, contains What The Dickens, which many long-term Tokyo residents consider the best sports bar in the city. The commute from Shibuya is 3 stops on the Hibiya Line and the atmosphere on a Premier League Saturday is more authentic than anything south of the river in Tokyo.
The music and arts neighbourhood west of Shibuya has one sports bar worth knowing and it specifically caters to cycling, rugby, and football rather than the American sports focus of Roppongi. Sub Zero draws a local creative crowd that treats sport as one interest among several rather than as the sole purpose of an evening.
Nakameguro and Ginza each contribute one bar to this guide. Bar Ichi in Nakameguro is the strongest candidate for best sports bar in Tokyo not in Roppongi. Champions Bar Ginza serves the business hotel crowd at prices that reflect the postcode.
The challenge of running a sports bar in Tokyo is not fundamentally different from running one in London or Sydney, with one significant complication: the time zones. European football kicks off between 1am and 5am Japanese time, and the NFL runs through Sunday afternoon and evening in Eastern time, which translates to Monday morning in Tokyo. The sports bars that have built loyal followings are the ones that take the irregular hours seriously rather than treating them as an inconvenience.
The best Tokyo sports bars solve this by operating genuinely late kitchen hours and maintaining beer quality through the early morning sessions, when the temptation to coast is strongest. What The Dickens in Ebisu and The Hub in Roppongi have both built their reputations partly on the consistency of service at 3am during a February Champions League last-16 tie, which is a genuinely difficult operational achievement in any city.
Nippon Professional Baseball and the J.League are the dominant sports in Japan, and the most authentic sports bar experience in Tokyo often involves watching Yomiuri Giants or Kawasaki Frontale rather than Manchester City. Several of the bars we list have built their identity specifically around Japanese sport, and for visitors the experience of watching a domestic baseball game in a Japanese pub environment is as culturally rich as any conventional tourist activity.
Rugby occupies a particular place in this guide. Japan's performance in the 2019 Rugby World Cup created a generation of Japanese rugby fans who now pack the Shinjuku Irish pubs for Six Nations Saturday. The enthusiasm of a room full of Japanese supporters watching Ireland or England play is one of the most specific and rewarding sports bar experiences available in Asia, and it is available every Saturday from February through March.
Tokyo's sports bars run the full spectrum from JPY 600 draft lagers to JPY 1,800 craft IPAs. The Japanese craft beer revolution has reached the sports bar sector: Good Beer Faucets in Shibuya and Sub Zero in Shimokitazawa both stock Japanese microbreweries that are serious about what they do. Our recommendation for most venues is to ask what is on tap from a local Japanese brewery before defaulting to the international brands. The quality gap has closed substantially.
If you are watching the game in a Japanese sports bar rather than an expat venue, consider ordering properly alongside the beer. The izakaya snack culture that permeates Japanese drinking means that karaage, edamame, and yakitori appear on most menus regardless of the bar's primary identity, and they are almost invariably better than equivalent sports bar food elsewhere.
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