Women's Meijin

This is the female-only equivalent of the Japanese Meijin title. Unlike the Meijin title, this tournament is conducted using the single knockout format to determine a challenger. The 20th edition uses a double elimination format to determine the challenger. The title is then decided by a best of three match with the previous year's title holder. The exceptions were in the first two years (1989 and 1990), when the title was actually determined by a Swiss system. Sponsored by Fuji Evening Newspaper and Nippon Life Insurance Company, the winner's prize is ¥5,100,000.

From the 21st edition, the sponsor changed to Sankei newspaper. At the same time, for the first time in female event in Japan, league system (7-player) to decide the challenger was introduced. The league system continued up to the 29th edition, and changed back to single knockout tournament from the 30th.

After the 31st edition, the Sankei newspaper quit as the sponsor for financial reasons. The Nihon Ki-in failed to find substitute sponsors and the tournament will be discontinued. <-- This prediction did not come true.

• http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match/fmeijin/index-e.html

Previously there was another female tournament named Women's Meijin