Titleholder history

This page lists all players who have held one of eight professional titles, from the formation of the Meijin title in 1937 (Showa 12) until now.

2015 (Eio-sen formed) - now

Season	Eio Apr - Jun	Meijin Apr - Jun	Kisei Jun - Jul	Oi Jul - Sep	Oza Sep - Oct	Ryuo Oct - Dec	Osho Jan - Mar	Kio Feb - Mar	Notes
	Eio	Meijin	Kisei	Oi	Oza	Ryuo	Osho	Kio
2023 (Reiwa 5)	Term 8 Sota Fujii	Term 81 Sota Fujii	Term 94 Sota Fujii	Term 64 Sota Fujii	Term 71 Sota Fujii	Term 36 Sota Fujii	Term 73 Sota Fujii	Fujii S. or Ito T.	Fujii becomes youngest 7-crown & youngest and 5th Ryuo-Meijin & becomes 8-crown Watanabe loses all titles after 19 years
2022 (Reiwa 4)	Sota Fujii	Akira Watanabe	Sota Fujii	Sota Fujii	Takuya Nagase	Sota Fujii	Sota Fujii	Sota Fujii	Tanigawa is crowned 17th Lifetime Meijin Fujii becomes 6-crown
2021 (Reiwa 3)	Sota Fujii	Akira Watanabe	Sota Fujii	Sota Fujii	Takuya Nagase	Sota Fujii	Sota Fujii	Akira Watanabe	Fujii becomes youngest 3-crown/4-crown/5-crown/player to defend a title
2020 (Reiwa 2)	Masayuki Toyoshima	Akira Watanabe	Sota Fujii	Sota Fujii	Takuya Nagase	Masayuki Toyoshima	Akira Watanabe	Akira Watanabe	Delayed start of Eio and Meijin-sen (from June) Fujii becomes youngest titleholder/2-crown
2019 (Reiwa 1)	Takuya Nagase	Masayuki Toyoshima	Akira Watanabe	Kazuki Kimura	Takuya Nagase	Masayuki Toyoshima	Akira Watanabe	Akira Watanabe	Kimura becomes oldest player to win first title (46 years old) Toyoshima becomes 4th Ryuo-Meijin
2018 (Heisei 30)	Term 3 Taichi Takami	Amahiko Sato	Masayuki Toyoshima	Masayuki Toyoshima	Shintaro Saito	Akihito Hirose	Akira Watanabe	Akira Watanabe	Eio officially becomes a title 8 players share 8 titles (at the end of Kisei-sen) Habu loses all titles after 27 years 9 months
2017 (Heisei 29)	-	Amahiko Sato	Yoshiharu Habu	Tatsuya Sugai	Taichi Nakamura	Yoshiharu Habu	Toshiaki Kubo	Akira Watanabe	Habu wins his 99th title and qualifies for Lifetime 7-crown
2016 (Heisei 28)	(Term 2) Amahiko Sato	Amahiko Sato	Yoshiharu Habu	Yoshiharu Habu	Yoshiharu Habu	Akira Watanabe	Toshiaki Kubo	Akira Watanabe	Ryuo changes its finals format
2015 (Heisei 27)	(Term 1) Takayuki Yamasaki	Term 73 Yoshiharu Habu	Term 86 Yoshiharu Habu	Term 56 Yoshiharu Habu	Term 63 Yoshiharu Habu	Term 28 Akira Watanabe	Term 65 Masataka Goda	Term 41 Akira Watanabe	Eio-sen is formed as a non-title championship