Manaka Kawai secured the 2026 Japanese Women’s Motocross Championship title with a victory at the final round of the D.I.D All Japan Motocross Championship, held at Sportsland SUGO in Murata, Miyagi Prefecture, on November 1.
The ninth round of the 2026 championship, which also marked the 64th edition of the MFJ-GP, took place over October 31 and November 1. The women’s class featured a single 15-minute-plus-one-lap race, with the championship still to be decided between Kawai and Mako Kawakami.
Riding her T.E.SPORT Honda CRF150RII, Kawai had dominated the season, winning the opening seven rounds before Kawakami (YSP Hamamatsu BOSS RACING/Yamaha YZ85LW) ended her winning streak at round eight. Heading into the final race, Kawai held a 16-point advantage, 273 points to Kawakami’s 257.
Both title contenders made strong starts, but it was Miyu Minoura (Team ITOMO/Honda CRF150RII) who took the early lead, ahead of Nanami Honda (TEAM KOH-Z/Yamaha YZ85LW). Kawai quickly worked her way through the field, moving into second by the end of the opening lap before taking the lead from Minoura on lap two.
Kawakami also made her way past Minoura, taking second place with an inside move, while Honda moved into third shortly afterwards.
With seven minutes completed, Kawai held a 2.1-second advantage over Kawakami. Although the Yamaha rider occasionally matched or bettered the leader’s lap times, Kawai managed to extend her lead midway through the race, setting the fastest lap in 2:18.
From there, Kawai controlled the race to the finish, securing her eighth victory of the 2026 season. Kawakami crossed the line in second, with Honda completing the podium in third.
The result confirmed Kawai as the 2026 Japanese Women’s Motocross Champion, capping off an impressive season with eight victories from nine rounds.
#1 Manaka Kawai : “Looking at the results, people might think it was easy because I won so many races, but there were plenty of difficult moments along the way. It was far from easy.
As the defending champion, there was always pressure to win, with people expecting me to win every time. That made things particularly challenging mentally.
I knew that I only needed a certain result in the final round to secure the championship, but I didn’t want to ride in a way that felt disappointing or lacked ambition. I was only thinking about winning.
I’m happy that I gave it everything both yesterday and today, racing properly and coming through the field from behind to take the victory.
We had a lot of rainy conditions this season, and my mechanic helped me enormously with the carburettor settings. I sometimes made a lot of requests, but today I had a bike that was absolutely perfect, and I’m very grateful for that.”
#14 Manaka Kawakami
“This season has been a huge learning experience for me, and I feel I’ve become much faster from the first round to the ninth. The conditions were difficult today, and I couldn’t find good lap times even during practice. Today, I simply have to accept that I was beaten. I’ll work hard over the off-season and train properly so that I can become champion in 2027.”
#33 Nanami Honda
“This has been a really tough season. I’ve received support from so many people, but I wasn’t able to win a single race, and I honestly feel sorry about that. It’s disappointing, but I’m grateful to all my sponsors for making it possible for me to race all the way to the end of the season without injury. Thank you to everyone who supported me throughout the season.”
