The 2026 Nippon Professional Baseball season is the 77th season of professional baseball in Japan since Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) was reorganized in 1950. There are 12 NPB teams, split evenly between the Central League and Pacific League.
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks entered the season as the defending champions.
The 2026 season introduced a new playoff clause that stated that if the lower seeded team in the second round of the Climax Series finished either below .500 or more than 10 games behind the league's pennant winner, the lower seeded team would be placed with a 1 game disadvantage on top of the 1 game advantage the league's pennant winner receives in the second round, meaning that the lower seed would have to win 5 games while the pennant winner only had to win 3. On October 1st, with a win over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, the Pacific League pennant winning Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks activated this clause in its first season of implementation by guaranteeing they would finish at least 10 games ahead of both the Saitama Seibu Lions and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Regular season standings + 2026 Central League regular season standings Team 1z – Hanshin Tigers13977602—35–32–242–28–02y – Yomiuri Giants143766432½39–31–237–33–13y – Yokohama DeNA BayStars14270693838–30–332–39–04Hiroshima Toyo Carp1406076416½34–36–126–40–35Tokyo Yakult Swallows141607921829–39–231–40–06Chunichi Dragons143608121938–33–022–48–2 y – Clinched Climax Series berth; z – Clinched Central League pennant
+ 2026 Pacific League regular season standings Team 1za – Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks14291483—49–23–042–25–32y – Saitama Seibu Lions141776041341–29–236–31–23y – Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters1437862313½42–28–236–34–14Orix Buffaloes143657622741–29–124–47–15Chiba Lotte Marines140627532836–31–126–44–26Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles1415783134½33–37–024–46–1 y – Clinched Climax Series berth; z – Clinched Pacific League pennant; a – Clinched 2-game advantage in Pacific League Climax Series
Interleague + 2026 regular season interleague standings Team 1Saitama Seibu Lions181431.824—7–27–1–12Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks181440.778½7–27–23Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters181440.778½6–38–14Yomiuri Giants181062.6253½5–2–25–45Chiba Lotte Marines181062.6253½5–45–2–26Orix Buffaloes18981.52957–22–6–17Chunichi Dragons187110.3897½4–53–68Tokyo Yakult Swallows186111.35381–7–15–49Hanshin Tigers186120.3338½3–63–610Hiroshima Toyo Carp185121.29493–5–12–711Yokohama DeNA BayStars185130.2789½3–62–712Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles184140.22210½2−72–7 Interleague champion
See also 2026 Major League Baseball season 2026 KBO League season
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