The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team 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 August 8, 1998, at a NJPW live event. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is not the only tag team title contested for in NJPW; the IWGP Tag Team Championship is also sanctioned by NJPW. According to NJPW's official website, the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is listed as the "IWGP Jr. Tag Class", while the IWGP Tag Team Championship is considered the "IWGP Heavy Weight Class". The title is contested for by junior heavyweight wrestlers; the weight-limit for the title is per partner. Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won as a result of a predetermined outcome.

Title changes happen mostly at NJPW-promoted events. The inaugural champions were Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa, who defeated Dr. Wagner Jr. and Koji Kanemoto on August 8, 1998, in the final of a tournament. Rocky Romero holds the record for most reigns by an individual wrestler, with eight. At seven reigns, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) hold the record for the most by a team. Gedo and Jado's combined four reign lengths add up to 960 days—the most of any team. NJPW keep track of all championship title defenses per reign, which is unlike most mainstream wrestling organizations. They also hold the most total defenses as champions, with 15. Ryusuke Taguchi holds the records for most combined days and most total defenses by an individual wrestler, with 990 days and 17 defenses respectively across his 7 reigns with 4 different partners. Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) hold the record for most defenses during a single reign, with 7. The Great Sasuke and Jushin Thunder Liger's only reign, Minoru and Prince Devitt's first reign, El Samurai and Koji Kanemoto's only reign, Apollo 55's fourth reign, Jushin Thunder Liger's sixth and Tiger Mask's first reign, The Young Bucks' second, fourth, and seventh reigns, Roppongi Vice's (Beretta and Rocky Romero) first, second and fourth reigns, Matt Sydal and Ricochet's first and second reigns and Roppongi 3K's (Sho and Yoh) second reign share the record for the fewest successful defenses, with zero. At 348 days, Otani and Takaiwa's second reign is the longest in the title's history. Minoru and Prince Devitt's first reign is the shortest, at 21 days.

Las Máscaras de Oro (El Desperado and Místico) are the current champions in their first reign as a team, but fifth for Desperado and first for Místico individually. They won the titles by defeating Ichiban Sweet Boys (Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita) on Night 2 of Wrestling Dontaku in Fukuoka, Japan on May 4, 2026.

Title history

Combined reigns

As of , . †Indicates the current champions

By team

RankTeamNo. ofreigns Combineddefenses Combined days1Gedo and Jado4 15 9602The Young Bucks7 9 7063Apollo 554 13 6734Roppongi 3K5 4 5455Suzuki-gun4 6 5276Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa2 6 4977Bullet Club War Dogs2 6 4378Catch 2/23 4 3729Time Splitters2 6 31310Bullet Club/Bullet Club's Cutest Tag Team3 2 31011Jushin Thunder Liger and Koji Kanemoto1 6 28212Hirooki Goto and Minoru1 2 28113Forever Hooligans2 5 27614Dick Togo and Taka Michinoku1 3 27015Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka1 3 25416reDRagon2 3 23617La Oscuridad1 3 20418Ichiban Sweet Boys3 3 18419The Motor City Machine Guns1 3 18220No Remorse Corps2 1 16621Roppongi Vice1 4 15722Legend1 1 15523Las Máscaras de Oro †1 0 +24Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru1 4 15025El Samurai and Ryusuke Taguchi1 2 13926El Samurai and Jushin Thunder Liger1 1 13627Six Or Nine1 2 12128Intergalactic Jet Setters2 1 12029Jushin Thunder Liger and Minoru Tanaka1 1 11930Flying Tiger1 1 11631Matt Sydal and Ricochet2 0 10632Prince Prince2 1 10533Golden☆Lovers1 2 10434Dr. Wagner Jr. and Kendo Kashin1 2 9635The Great Sasuke and Jushin Thunder Liger1 0 9436American Dragon and Curry Man1 1 8537No Limit1 1 8338El Samurai and Koji Kanemoto1 0 7239Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue1 2 7140Los Ingobernables de Japón1 1 6141Funky Future1 1 5742Suzuki-gun1 1 5243Unbound Co.1 1 5044Master Wato and Yoh1 0 4745Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask1 0 3646Suzuki-gun1 1 26

By wrestler

RankWrestler No. ofreigns Combineddefenses Combined days1 7 17 9902 4 15 9604 6 9 8225 6 13 7786 5 7 7597 6 7 7498 6 11 7289 7 9 70611 † 5 6 +12 4 11 67913 8 7 59914 6 4 59215 2 6 49717 3 9 49518 2 6 43720 4 7 43121 3 4 37223 3 5 36024 3 3 34725 3 2 31026 4 4 30027 2 4 29628 1 2 28129 2 5 27630 1 3 27031 2 3 23633 1 3 20434 3 3 18435 1 3 18236 2 2 16837 2 1 16638 3 1 16339 4 1 15740 1 1 15541 † 1 0 +42 2 1 15243 1 4 15044 2 1 12045 2 0 10646 1 2 10448 1 2 9650 1 0 9451 1 1 8553 1 1 8355 2 2 7856 1 2 7157 1 1 6159 1 1 50

References General

Specific

External links New Japan Pro-Wrestling.co.jp