IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship

The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling junior heavyweight championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. The title was introduced on February 6, 1986, at a NJPW show. Only wrestlers under the junior heavyweight weight-limit may hold the championship. NJPW currently controls two junior heavyweight championships: the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The weight-limit for the tag team title is 100 kg (220 lb); it is assumed that this title has the same weight-limit. From August 5, 1996, until November 5, 1997, the title was part of the J-Crown, or J-Crown Octuple Unified Championship. The J-Crown was an assembly of eight different championships from several different promotions. It was created on August 5, 1996, when The Great Sasuke won an eight-man tournament. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, the British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship, the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, the NWA World Welterweight Championship, the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship, the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship, the WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship, and the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship were the eight championships that were involved. On November 5, 1997, then-champion Shinjiro Otani vacated all J-Crown belts but the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship after the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) retook control of its Light Heavyweight title, effectively ending the J-Crown. Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won as a result of a predetermined outcome.

Overall, there have been 76 reigns shared among 35 wrestlers. Title changes happen mostly at NJPW-promoted events, as it has only changed hands at non-NJPW events twice. Reigns 36 and 37 occurred on World Championship Wrestling's Nitro television program, when Juventud Guerrera defeated Jushin Thunder Liger on November 29, 1999, and on December 6, 1999, when Liger retrieved the championship by defeating Guerrera's stand-in Psychosis. The inaugural champion was Shiro Koshinaka, who defeated The Cobra on February 6, 1986, in the finals of a tournament. Liger holds the record of most reigns, with 11. At 628 days, Liger's sixth reign is the longest in the title's history. Liger, with a combined 11 reigns, holds the record for most days as champion at 2,245. Guerrera's only reigns holds the record for shortest reign at one week. With 11 successful defenses, Minoru Tanaka's reign under the ring name "Heat" had the most during a single reign. Over his 11 reigns, Liger successfully defended the title 31 times, the most of any champion. With zero, El Samurai's second reign, Hiroshi Hase's second reign, Tiger Mask's fourth and sixth reigns, Liger's fourth reign, Guerrera's only reign, Pegasus Kid's only reign, Low Ki's third reign, Kushida's first and fourth reigns and Bushi's only reign are all tied for least successful defenses. Hiromu Takahashi is the current champion in his first reign, after defeating Kushida on January 4, 2017, at NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome event to win the title.