It remains unclear whether lymphadenectomy alters regional node recurrence after nephroureterectomy in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis. The predictive factors for regional node recurrence are still unclear. In this study, we retrospectively examined how the extent of lymphadenectomy influences regional node recurrence in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis. From January 1988 through July 2013, we performed nephroureterectomy in 180 patients with non-metastatic (cN0M0) urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis at two Japanese institutes. Regional nodes were determined according to our previous mapping study: complete lymphadenectomy designates that all regional sites were dissected; incomplete lymphadenectomy that all sites were not dissected. A third group included those without lymphadenectomy. The 5-year cancer-specific and recurrence-free survival was significantly higher in the complete lymphadenectomy group than in the incomplete lymphadenectomy or without lymphadenectomy groups (P = 0.03). The incidence of regional node recurrence was significantly lower in the complete lymphadenectomy group at 2.9% (2/67) than in the incomplete lymphadenectomy at 18.1% (4/22) or without lymphadenectomy at 10.9% (10/91) groups (P = 0.03). In patients with incomplete lymphadenectomy, 75% of regional node recurrence occurred outside of the dissected sites. Complete lymphadenectomy is shown to be a likely predictive factor of reduced risk of recurrence at the regional nodes by multivariate analysis, after adjusting for patient age, pathological T stage, and pathological nodal metastases. This study shows that template-based lymphadenectomy reduced the risk of regional node recurrence in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis and appears to result in improved survival.