Two-time champion Takuma Aoki's ascension to Honda's 500cc Grand Prix team brought his 19-year-old team-mate Yuichi Takeda into the spotlight. Already marked as a future superstar after winning his debut World Superbike race as a wildcard in 1996, Takeda acquitted himself well in the first half of the season by trading wins with Noriyuki Haga in the first 6 races. Like Aoki in 1994 however, inconsistency cost him heavily in the second half of the year; Haga, now an official Marlboro Yamaha rider, capitalised with 3 consecutive wins which gave him the title with one round still to run. Katsuaki Fujiwara gave Suzuki their best Superbike season to date and vaulted to 2nd in the points with run of impressive late-season results, putting Takeda back to a still-impressive 3rd. The experienced Wataru Yoshikawa (Yamaha) and Shin'ichi Ito (Honda) backed up their younger teammates with 4th and 5th in the standings.