55th Annual Naha Great Tug-of-War Festival 2025
West Side Crowd Getting Ready to Start
The 55th Annual Naha Great Tug-of-War Festival was held along Route 58 at the Kumoji Intersection on Sunday 12th October 2025.
The weather was mostly clear and very warm in Naha City with a temperature high of 31'C/88'F and some light breeze throughout the day.
The 2025 festival was dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Hawaii-Okinawa sister-state relationship, commemorating the 125th anniversary of the first recorded group of Okinawans who immigrated to Hawaii. This year's event welcomed many visitors from Hawaii to the main event.
The Naha Great Tug-of-War main event was declared by the Naha City Mayor to start at precisely 4:25pm with the wave of an official Naha Great Tug-of-War Preservation Association flag. The event announcers then excitedly exclaimed "HAJIME!" and "START!", and the battle was on!
Naha City Mayor announcing the start of the Great Tug-of-War Main Event
Naha City Mayor waiving a Naha Great Tug-of-War Preservation Association flag to officially start the 55th Annual Naha Great Tug-of-War
This year the Great Tug-of-War battle lasted for 13 minutes and 14 seconds. The East Team was declared the winner making this their third victory in a row.
The Ryukyu Shimpo reports this year's win brings the East team's overall record to 19 wins, 14 losses, and 17 draws (Ryukyu Shimpo Japanese Language News Article Link).
Okinawa Life YouTube Clip of East Team Winner Celebration
Once the East team's celebrations began to wind down, many participants lined up excitedly to receive a small portion of the end of the rope to take home as a one-of-a-kind memento and good luck charm.
Okinawa Life would like to express our gratitude to all who came and participated to help make the event both safe and successful for everyone. Extra special thanks to all who contributed to the set-up and clean-up of the event this year, and every year. It takes an immense amount of effort for both set-up and post-event pack up and clean up, from organizers to extra-large industrial machinery. Thank you for all of your efforts.
A portion of the crane machinery used in the event set-up to place the giant rope this year
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Okinawa Life, 2025/10/16