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Loto 6 (Japan): a game guide
Japan's Loto 6 is a number-selection lottery in which you choose six distinct numbers from 1 to 43. It looks like Korea's Lotto 6/45, but the numbers in the pool, the price, the tier structure and the carryover differ. In this site's verification registry the number format, price and draw days were confirmed, while a numeric official odds figure was not. So this guide prints the exact odds it calculated itself, and checks by calculation that the prize amounts read on the official site imply a return of about 45%. Japan's lottery allocation structure is covered in How lottery sales are split: Korea and Japan compared.
- Format
- 6 numbers from 43; one draw-only bonus number verified
- Price
- JPY 200 per line verified
- Draw days
- Monday and Thursday verified
- Jackpot combinations
- 6,096,454 = C(43,6) (calculated; no official odds figure established) computed by LottoFlick
- Prize amounts (no carryover)
- 1st JPY 200 million; 2nd about JPY 10 million; 3rd JPY 300,000; 4th JPY 6,800; 5th JPY 1,000 partly verified
- Carryover cap
- up to JPY 600 million when a carryover has occurred partly verified
- Payout as a share of sales
- Not stated in the sources read; about 45% is implied by the amounts computed by LottoFlick
- Supported in this site's tools
- Yes: generator, Lottery Explorer, Combination Calculator and Lab computed by LottoFlick
The numbers: 6,096,454 combinations
There are C(43,6) = 6,096,454 ways to choose six distinct numbers from 43 without order, about 25% fewer than Lotto 6/45's 8,145,060. A line therefore has a 1 in 6,096,454 chance of the first prize. This figure is calculated from the number format, not confirmed as an official odds figure.
The draw produces six main numbers and one bonus number. The bonus number is not chosen by the player and is used only in the draw, so it does not increase the number of jackpot combinations. This is the same as the bonus number in Lotto 6/45, and this site's registry records it as a "draw-only bonus".
The distinctive structure: the bonus number decides only the second tier
From a search summary of the official site, tiers are set as follows. The bonus number is used only to decide the second tier.
| Tier | Condition | Prize (no carryover, theoretical) | Winning tickets | Odds (1 in N) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 6 main numbers | JPY 200 million | 1 | 6,096,454 |
| 2nd | 5 main numbers + the bonus number | about JPY 10 million | 6 | 1,016,075.7 |
| 3rd | 5 main numbers | JPY 300,000 | 216 | 28,224.3 |
| 4th | 4 main numbers | JPY 6,800 | 9,990 | 610.3 |
| 5th | 3 main numbers | JPY 1,000 | 155,400 | 39.2 |
The counts work like this. The 2nd tier needs five of the six main numbers with the remaining slot being the bonus number: 6 ways. The 3rd tier is five main numbers plus one of the 36 numbers that are neither main nor bonus: 6 × 36 = 216. The 4th tier is C(6,4) × C(37,2) = 9,990 and the 5th is C(6,3) × C(37,3) = 155,400. Adding the winning tickets of all tiers gives 165,613, and dividing by the total of 6,096,454 gives about 2.72% (1 in 36.8). According to the notice, a ticket that qualifies for several tiers is not paid twice, the higher tier taking priority, and if no tier has a winner the draw is repeated.
The prize amounts are the notice's "theoretical values". Actual amounts vary with each round's sales and the number of winning lines (greatly for the 1st and 2nd tiers), while the 4th and 5th are described as fixed in principle. The page gave no date for these amounts, so we have them only as of the time of the search summary.
Carryover: when nobody wins the first prize
According to the official notice, the totals of tiers with no winner, and amounts above a per-line cap, are carried over to the next round's first prize, and in a round with a carryover the first prize can rise to a maximum of JPY 600 million. Without a carryover the first prize is JPY 200 million (theoretical). This works in the same direction as Korea's rollover, but note the cap: however long it rolls, the top first prize does not exceed JPY 600 million. When this cap took effect and the details of the rule (how many rounds a carryover may last) we could not confirm.
The return implied by the prize amounts
Multiplying the published theoretical prizes by the exact odds above and adding gives the expected prize per line.
- 1st: JPY 200 million ÷ 6,096,454 ≈ JPY 32.8
- 2nd: about JPY 10 million × 6 ÷ 6,096,454 ≈ JPY 9.8
- 3rd: JPY 300,000 × 216 ÷ 6,096,454 ≈ JPY 10.6
- 4th: JPY 6,800 × 9,990 ÷ 6,096,454 ≈ JPY 11.1
- 5th: JPY 1,000 × 155,400 ÷ 6,096,454 ≈ JPY 25.5
The total is about JPY 89.9, 44.95% of the JPY 200 price, so about 45%. That is close to the average prize share for Japanese lotteries overall (46.5%) shown in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government document. We did not confirm an official prize share for Loto 6 alone. The 45% is "the expected value when the theoretical prizes apply unchanged with no carryover", about 5 percentage points below Korean Lotto 6/45's 50%.
Compared with Korean Lotto 6/45
| Item | Loto 6 (Japan) | Lotto 6/45 (Korea) |
|---|---|---|
| Pool and picks | 6 from 43 | 6 from 45 |
| Jackpot odds | 1 in 6,096,454 | 1 in 8,145,060 |
| Chance of any prize | about 2.72% | about 2.38% |
| Draws | twice a week (Mon, Thu) | once a week (Sat) |
| Price per line | JPY 200 | KRW 1,000 |
| Prizes as share of sales | about 45% implied by the amounts | 50% (statutory floor) |
| Carryover | yes; first prize up to JPY 600 million after a carryover | yes; first-prize rollover |
Worked examples: what 6,096,454 means in practice
With p = 1/6,096,454 for the first prize, a few calculations make the scale concrete. All are exact arithmetic on the format, not forecasts.
- A coin flip. At least one first prize with probability 50% needs ln 2 × 6,096,454 ≈ 4.23 million lines. At JPY 200 a line that is about JPY 845 million, which is more than the JPY 200 million first prize without a carryover, and still only a coin flip.
- Twice a week for 50 years. The two weekly draws give about 5,200 draws in fifty years. One line each time gives a lifetime chance of about 0.085% of ever holding a first-prize ticket, or 1 in 1,173. The same person would pay JPY 1,040,000 in total and would expect, by the table, roughly 133 fifth-prize wins (1 in 39.2) over those 5,200 lines.
- A hundred lines in one draw. 100 different lines give a 1 in 61,000 chance of the first prize in that draw, about the same as picking one particular day out of 167 years.
These numbers are not a reason to play or not to play, only a way to see the size. The expected value, around 45 yen back for every 100 yen spent as computed above, is the better summary of what a line is worth on average.
Monday and Thursday: what more draws mean
Loto 6 draws twice a week, so the same line meets the drum more often than a weekly game. That does not mean it "wins more often". A single line in a single draw has exactly the odds of the game, whichever schedule applies. More draws also mean more spending over the same period, so the expected loss per period grows in the same proportion. Comparing games by draw frequency and jackpot odds alone says nothing about which is better; price and expected value have to be read together, and this guide does not rank games. The effect of a rollover that enlarges the prize is calculated in the rollover ticket expected value.
On this site
- The Lottery Explorer shows Loto 6's verification status (number format, price and draw days confirmed; official odds figure not).
- The Combination Calculator shows the C(43,6) calculation.
- In the Lottery Lab you can simulate draws in this format and compare them with the exact odds.
- The number generator draws six distinct numbers from 43 at random; it does not improve the chance of winning.
What we could not verify
- An official odds table (the odds here are calculated).
- The reference date and revision history of the prize amounts. The tier amounts are the current notice as seen in a search summary and may have differed in the past.
- When the carryover cap took effect, and the rule on the number of carryover rounds.
- The prize share of sales for Loto 6 alone. The 45% above is computed from theoretical prizes.
- Tax treatment of prizes and the payment deadline.
- Mizuho Bank's page refused access when re-read on 25 October 2026, so the number format, price and draw days use the registry's 4 October review as it stands.
Lottery outcomes are random, and understanding odds does not change the probability of a particular ticket. Set a spending limit and check local age and participation restrictions. This site does not sell lottery tickets.
LottoFlick is independent and not an official lottery operator. Numbers are random and cannot be predicted.
Sources and verification
- Mizuho Bank (lottery trustee), Loto 6: six of 43, one draw-only bonus, JPY 200, Monday and Thursday (as reviewed in the registry on 2026-10-04) — verified · the page returned HTTP 403 to a later fetch on 2026-10-25
- Takarakuji official site, Loto 6 features: tier conditions, theoretical prize amounts, carryover rules (seen through a search summary on 2026-10-25) — partly verified · the page itself was not opened
- LottoFlick calculation: exact tier counts and the implied return — computed by LottoFlick