1st Asia Oceania Kendo Championship

1^st Asia Oceania Kendo Championships – May 30-31, 2026

The 1st Asia Oceania Kendo Championships (1AOKC) will be held at the Tokyo Budokan on May 30 and 31. This is the inaugural championship of the newly formed Asia Oceania Kendo Federation (AOKF).

The AOKF was formally established on December 1, 2025, with the aim of promoting kendo in the Asia and Oceania regions.  This is the third continental kendo federation to be registered with the International Kendo Federation after the European Kendo Federation (EKF) and the Latin American Kendo Confederation (CLAK), which have histories of over 55 years and 20 years respectively.

At the time of the AOKF's establishment, it had 21 affiliated countries and regions. These are:

East Asia: Japan, Korea, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia

Southeast Asia: Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunai

Oceania: Australia, New Zealand

Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (Kazakhstan was at that time in the process of withdrawing from the EKF to join the AOKF)

Since the press conference held by the AOKF on March 9, 2026, to announce the Japan teams, both Kyrgyzstan and Turkey have joined the federation and will participate in the 1AOKC, making a total of 23 countries and regions.

The AOKF’s first president is Hanshi 8-dan Makita Minoru-sensei, former world champion and former president of the International Budo University. He has hopes that this federation and championship will promote and increase the level of kendo in the Asia Oceania region, and through kendo, will contribute to peace and prosperity between the participating nations.

Like the World Kendo Championships (WKC), the AOKC will at first be held once every three years, but in the future this may change to twice every three years, like the European Kendo Championships (EKC), which is held in years in which there is no WKC.

As with the WKC, there will be men’s and women’s individual and team championships. However, the individual championships is divided into two divisions: 3-dan and under, and open. Japan and Korea will not take part in the 3-dan and under competitions. Unlike the WKC, there are no league matches in the 1AOKC – it’s tournament style right from the beginning.

The action begins on Saturday morning at 09:00 with the opening ceremony and Nihon Kendo Kata demonstration. The women’s 3-dan and under championship starts at 10:00 followed by the men's. From 12:30 to 14:30 there will be iaido, jodo and kendo kihon waza demonstrations as well as iaido, jodo, and kendo trial lessons.

The trial lessons will be followed by women’s and men’s open individual competitions with all four final matches – 3-dan and under and open – being held from 17:00 to 17:30.

The second day’s (Sunday May 31) action starts at 09:30 with the women’s team event followed by the men’s team event at 12:30. The finals for both will start at 15:30.

The Kendo World Team will be in attendance, and we’ll have photos and videos of the championships going up on our social media channels in the days after this event.

We are looking forward to attending the first edition of what will be another major event in the kendo calendar!