It’s rare for female athletes to make more money than their male counterparts, but it happens in Japan in one sport: golf.
In almost every mainstream sport in the country —and in the rest of a nation that ranked No. 118 out of 148 in a recent gender gap report — women earn significantly less than men and many of them need to boost their income with second jobs.
Take soccer, one of a handful of sports which has a domestic women’s pro league. The highest-paid player in the men’s J. League makes almost 40 times more than the top earner in the women’s WE League. In 2024, the average player in the J. League’s top division made ?31 million, while the average WE League salary is said to be in the ?3 million to ?4 million range.
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