We evaluated the safety, efficacy, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and predictive biomarkers of tirabrutinib, a second‐generation, enhanced‐selectivity Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor in Japanese patients with relapsed/refractory B‐cell non−Hodgkin lymphoma (B‐cell
NHL
) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (
CLL
). This was an open‐label, multicenter, phase I study. Seventeen patients (male N
=
8) with a median age of 70 years were enrolled in 4 dose cohorts (160 mg once daily [N
=
3], 320 mg once daily [N
=
3], 480 mg once daily [N
=
4] and 300 mg twice daily [N
=
7]); 4 patients had continued tirabrutinib administration as of 4 January 2018. The maximum tolerated dose was not reached. Pneumonitis (N
=
1) was the dose‐limiting toxicity for 300 mg twice daily. Common adverse events (
AE
s) were rash (35.3%) and vomiting (29.4%). Eight patients (47.1%) developed grade ≥3
AE
s: neutropenia (23.5%), anemia (11.8%) and leukopenia (11.8%) were frequent. The overall response rate (≥
PR
) was 76.5% (13/17 patients), including 4
DLBCL
patients with no
CD
79A/B
or
MYD
88
mutations, and 1
CLL
patient with a
TP
53
mutation, providing promising data for future developments. Of 16 patients with measurable lesions during the screening period, 12 showed ≥50% reductions in tumor diameter. In many patients, the tumor size decreased soon after beginning treatment. The maximum serum concentration for tirabrutinib was 611, 1220, 1280 and 886 ng/
mL
on Day 1 and 484, 971 1940, and 961 ng/
mL
on Day 28 for Cohorts 1‐4, respectively. Tirabrutinib pharmacokinetics were linear, with little accumulation following multiple doses. Tirabrutinib was well tolerated and showed promising efficacy for B‐cell
NHL
/CLL.