Japanese MMA was born in the 80's with various wrestling companies experimenting with cross-style matches. Fights like Muhammed Ali V Inoki was almost the birth of the this new brand of fighting.
Then there were pro-fighting companies like Rings, Pancrase, Shooto and the K1 in the 90's where the Japanese MMA Godfathers like, Maeda, Funaki, Sayama and Fujiwara pushed the limits with mixed/shootfighting style promotions.
In the early part of the new millenium Japan staged events like Pride FC with Takada V Rickson Gracie and Colosseum which featured Funaki V Rickson Gracie and Kanehara V Mario Sperry.
With Pride FC and Hero's FC came the legendary Sakuraba era where he defeated many of the infamous Gracie family, which finally brought MMA back home to Japan.
Now there are many Japanese companies staging MMA events in Japan like K1, Dream, Sengoku, Shooto, Shootboxing and feeder productions like Deep and ZST.
The main difference with Japanese MMA is the use of a specially designed MMA ring with the 5th safety rope to help protect the fighters in the ground position.
The Japanese promotions also place a big emphasis on fighting spirit and heroic fighting comebacks.
For current Japanese MMA news checkout: www.japan-mma.com
These are the current Japanese MMA promotions:
Deep
ZST