Is the NFL Coming to Japan? League Eyes Expansion as Interest Grows in Asia

The NFL is signaling growing interest in staging a game in Japan, with two of the league’s top international executives separately identifying the country as a priority market for future expansion, though no game, date or participating teams have been announced.

Brett Gosper, the NFL’s head of Europe and Asia-Pacific, told Reuters this week that Japan stands out among potential new markets. “Japan is a market of interest at the moment. There is a good following, good participation in that market as well… and a lot of sporting fans and an affinity with American sports like baseball and so on,” Gosper said, speaking as the league’s 2026 regular season, which opens Sept. 10, prepares to stage a record nine international games across seven countries.

Gosper’s comments echo remarks Commissioner Roger Goodell made in July at Fanatics Fest, where he confirmed Japan as a target for a future regular-season game and said he has roughly 10 new international destinations in mind overall. Goodell did not commit to a specific timeline for a Japan game.

Japan’s NFL History

Japan is not new to American football exhibitions. Tokyo Dome hosted several preseason American Bowl games between the 1970s and 2005, the last time the NFL played there in any capacity. Those were exhibition contests rather than games that counted in the standings, and Japan has never hosted a regular-season NFL game, a distinction Goodell specifically said he wants Japan’s eventual game to have, in line with the league’s broader shift away from preseason exhibitions abroad and toward counting regular-season matchups in international markets.

Why Executives See an Opening in Japan

League officials point to Japan’s existing enthusiasm for American sports, particularly Major League Baseball, as a foundation to build on. Gosper also pointed to the impact of individual players in driving international fan growth, citing Philadelphia Eagles tackle Jordan Mailata’s role in expanding the league’s following in Australia as a model the NFL hopes could be replicated with a prominent Japanese or Japanese-connected player. At the same time, Gosper acknowledged the sport faces some structural hurdles in Asian markets. “Sometimes some of the markets are more challenging to grow because they’re not on the U.S.” system of scoring and rules familiarity, he said, alluding to the learning curve fans face with a sport far less globally standardized than soccer or basketball.

How Japan Fits the League’s Broader Global Push

Japan’s emergence as a target comes as the NFL’s international slate has expanded rapidly. The 2026 season will see nine games played across four continents and eight stadiums, including first-time regular-season games in Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro and Paris, alongside returning stops in London, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City. The league’s stated long-term ambition, according to Goodell, is 16 international games a season, one per team, which would likely require expanding the regular season to 18 games and securing the NFL Players Association’s agreement to raise the current cap on games played overseas each year.

NFL leadership has framed the goal in terms of cultural relevance rather than just game counts. “Our objective… in 10 years would be to see ourselves rated very highly as a top three favourite sport in the countries that we operate in,” Gosper said, describing a strategy that treats each new international market as a long-term investment rather than a one-off event.

What Would Need to Happen for a Japan Game

No official announcement, host stadium, participating teams or date have been confirmed for a Japan game. Based on how the league has rolled out other new markets, Australia and France both debuted in 2026 after months of stadium negotiations and local partnership announcements, any Japan game would likely follow a similar process: an agreement with a venue such as Tokyo Dome or a comparable stadium, a local promotional partnership, and confirmation of which two NFL teams would play. The NFL’s expansion into new countries has also historically tracked closely with commercial sponsorship deals and broadcast partnerships in the target market, elements that have not yet been publicly disclosed for Japan.

The Bottom Line

Japan has moved from a hypothetical to a stated priority in the NFL’s international expansion plans, with both Goodell and Gosper naming it specifically in recent months. But “market of interest” is different from a scheduled game, and the league’s own history shows a gap of many months to years between naming a target market and staging a regular-season contest there. For now, Japan remains one of roughly 10 countries the NFL is evaluating as it works toward its stated goal of a truly global regular-season schedule.