Kickboxing Gym Near Me in Gotanda: K-1 Gym Above the Station

K-1 Gym Gotanda is on the fourth floor of the Suga Building at 1-14-11 Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0022, and you can see it from the east exit of JR Gotanda Station, in the building facing the Tokyu Store. It is one of the gyms carrying the K-1 brand, the striking promotion that made kickboxing a prime-time sport in Japan. Men pay ¥13,200 a month and women ¥11,000, so if your search for a kickboxing gym near me starts at a Yamanote Line platform, this one is a one-minute walk from the ticket gates.

The gym's representative, Hayato Suzuki, joined K-1 Gym Gotanda as an ordinary member when it opened, turned professional there and went on to win the 7th Krush super lightweight title, Krush being K-1's sister promotion. He is a southpaw, born in 1990, and still competes while running the gym. In his message on the gym's site he says he wants a place where people with no exercise habit can try fighting sports without feeling out of their depth, and the way the classes are set up reflects that.

The trainer list backs it up. Ryohei Akimoto, who coaches the pro class, received the Best Trainer award at the K-1 AWARDS 2022. Riki Matsuoka, a former 9th Krush welterweight champion who also finished third in a K-1 WORLD GP welterweight tournament, trains here, as does Takanashi Knuckle Miho, the second Krush women's atomweight champion. Toshiki Kawabata, who lists weight training as his hobby, takes the HIIT classes, so the gym is not only about learning to fight.

The gym says more than half of its members joined with no martial arts experience. The member comments it publishes give a clear picture: a woman in her thirties who came to fix a lack of exercise and now wants a firmer waist, a man in his forties who picked it because it was close to the station and wants to lose weight round his middle, and a woman in her forties who wanted to get stronger and now plans to enter a bout. Office workers from the towers around Osaki and Gotanda fill the evening slots.

For people who do want to compete, K-1 runs around ten amateur events a year, and the trainers will suggest which division suits your level. Fighters with pro ambitions are sent to K-1, Krush and Krush-EX shows once their coaches think they are ready. The point is that beginners and pros share one floor, and the gym keeps them apart by timetable rather than by building.

Trials are booked by email through the gym's contact form, and you give your preferred time when you apply. Beginners can join the K-1 beginner class from 19:00 on Tuesday to Friday, or come from 18:00 on Saturday and Sunday. There are no trials on Mondays or public holidays. A trainer first asks what you want from training, then wraps your hands, and the session moves through warm-up and stretching, shadowboxing for basic punches and kicks, sandbag work, mitt drills with a trainer and a cool-down.

Bring clothes you can move in, a towel and a drink, and leave your trainers at home, because everyone trains barefoot. There is a vending machine inside if you forget water. The gym states plainly that there is no hard sell after a trial. In October 2026 it is running an autumn campaign: if you join on the day of your free trial, the joining costs drop by ¥24,200 and you also get K-1 merchandise, which makes a same-day decision worth considering.

The joining fee is ¥11,000 and the registration fee is ¥3,300. The general course costs ¥13,200 a month for men, covering the pro class and the open free-training sessions, and ¥11,000 a month for women, which adds a women-only K-1 exercise class. When you sign up you pay at least two months in advance, so bring a bank or credit card for the direct debit and photo ID such as a passport, residence card or driving licence.

If you only visit Tokyo now and then, the visitor ticket is ¥4,400 per visit with no membership needed, and it includes rental wear, shorts and a sports towel. It is paid in cash at reception. Personal training costs ¥5,500 a session or ¥55,000 for eleven, and must be booked by 18:00 the day before. The premium option adds ¥2,200 a month and gives you clothing, towel and punching gloves every day, so you can arrive empty-handed. Private lockers are ¥1,650 small and ¥2,200 large.

Opening hours are 12:00 to 22:00 on weekdays with last entry at 21:00, 12:00 to 20:00 on Saturdays with last entry at 19:00, and 12:00 to 18:00 on Sundays and holidays with last entry at 17:00. During the pro class from Monday to Saturday, nobody else can enter, watch or train, so a walk-in viewing at that hour is wasted. Viewings at other times need no appointment, and you can join or leave any class partway through.

One honest warning: do not plan a first visit for a Monday. You cannot trial that day, and the pro class blocks part of the evening. Cancelling is strict too. You must come in person, hand back your member card and finish the paperwork by the 5th to leave at the end of that month, otherwise you pay for another month. Anyone under 18, or still at high school, needs a parent present to join.

Evenings after 19:00 are the busiest, because that is when the beginner class and the after-work crowd overlap. If you want a quieter floor, weekday afternoons between 12:00 and 17:00 are the gap, and the visitor ticket works then too. If you live further south, K-1 Gym Meguro, the first gym K-1 ran directly, opened in August 2013 near Musashi-Koyama Station, two stops from Meguro on the Tokyu Meguro Line.

For a different style, TARGET SHIBUYA in Jingumae runs semi-personal kickboxing over six floors and charges ¥3,300 for its trial, so it suits people who prefer one-to-one attention to a group class. Gotanda remains the better choice if you care about training next to active Krush fighters, and if being a minute from the Yamanote, Asakusa and Ikegami lines matters to you.

Gotanda Station sits right on the Meguro River, and the riverside path heads downstream towards Osaki or upstream towards Meguro, making an easy cool-down walk past cherry trees that are bare in autumn. About fifteen minutes' walk west of the gym, across the tracks and up the hill in Higashi-Gotanda 5-chome, Ikedayama Park is a small landscaped garden with a pond, laid out on land once owned by a feudal lord's family and now a quiet green spot among smart residential streets.

Back near the station, the streets east of the tracks are full of izakaya and ramen counters that stay busy with office workers after 21:00, the time the gym stops letting people in. After a session ending at 22:00, a bowl of noodles and the short walk back to the Yamanote platform is the usual way regulars finish their evening.

Address: K-1 Gym Gotanda, Suga Building 4F, 1-14-11 Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0022. Phone: 03-6450-2777. Access: one minute from JR Gotanda Station east exit, opposite the Tokyu Store. Hours: weekdays 12:00 to 22:00, Saturday 12:00 to 20:00, Sundays and holidays 12:00 to 18:00. Monthly fee ¥13,200 for men, ¥11,000 for women; visitor ¥4,400 in cash. Free trials Tuesday to Sunday, booked by email. Train barefoot and bring a towel and drink.