As a team sport, rugby union is ranked fifth in the popularity ratings behind baseball, football, basketball and volleyball.
This reality is unlikely to change until Japan's national rugby union team becomes consistently successful on the world stage, especially at the Rugby World Cup.
However, the sport is considered to have potential as its current number of registered players (125,000) matches the player numbers of some of the top rugby nations.

At present rugby union is rarely seen on the terrestrial TV channels, and is mainly restricted to CS and cable subscription channels, which hinders its growth. (
Sometimes the bigger games are shown on NHK TV – e.g. the University championship rugby final and the Microsoft Cup.)
As a team sport, rugby union is ranked fifth in the popularity ratings behind baseball, football, basketball and volleyball. This reality is unlikely to change until Japan's national rugby union team becomes consistently successful on the world stage, especially at the Rugby World Cup. However, the sport is considered to have potential as its current number of registered players (125,000) matches the player numbers of some of the top rugby nations.
At present rugby union is rarely seen on the terrestrial TV channels, and is mainly restricted to CS and cable subscription channels, which hinders its growth. (Sometimes the bigger games are shown on NHK TV – e.g. the University championship rugby final and the Microsoft Cup.)
Rugby union in Japan