The sport of baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, who taught at the Kaisei School in Tokyo. The first baseball team was called the Shimbashi Athletic Club and was established in 1878. It has been a popular sport ever since. It is called 野球 (やきゅう; yakyū) in Japanese, combining the characters for field and ball.

[edit] History

Two Waseda University baseball players in 1921.

Hiroshi Hiraoka, who was in United States studying engineering, introduced the game to his co-workers at Japan’s national railways in 1878. He and his co-workers created the first baseball team, the Shimbashi Athletic Club, and dominated other teams which popped up in Japan. However it wasn’t until the team from Tokyo University started playing that the sport took hold in Japanese culture. In 1896 the team defeated an American team from the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club 29 to 4. It was the first recorded international baseball game in Asia. After that victory, several other universities in Japan adopted the sport and it quickly spread throughout Japan. Since then teams from Japan have traveled to learn from their American counterparts. Waseda University was one of the first teams to cross the ocean to improve their skills. In 1905 the team traveled to the United States where it played college teams from around the country. Other universities in Japan made similar trips, and U.S. teams traveled to Japan to play.

In 1913 and in 1922, American baseball stars visited Japan and played against university teams. They also held clinics on technique. Herb Hunter, a retired major league player, made eight trips to Japan from 1922 to 1932 to organize games and coaching clinics.

Baseball is also played in Japan's junior and senior high schools. Each year in March and August, two tournaments are held at Koshien Stadium for senior high school teams that win a prefecture tournament.

[edit] Nippon Professional Baseball

The professional baseball association is called Nippon Professional Baseball. Japan has two leagues, as in the United States. The Central and Pacific Leagues each consisting of six teams. The Pacific League uses the designated hitter style of play. The pro baseball season is eight months long with games beginning in April, and a Championship held in October. Teams play 144 games, as compared to the 162 games of the American major league teams.

Corporations with interests outside baseball own the teams, and teams are identified with their owners, not where the team is based (with the exception of the Yokohama BayStars). Nippon Professional Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in Japan.

[edit] Differences with Major League Baseball

The rules are essentially those of Major League Baseball. In the Nippon league, however, tie games are allowed, and technical elements are slightly different: a smaller baseball, strike zone, and playing field are used. The Japanese baseball is wound more tightly and is harder than an American baseball. The strike zone is narrower "inside" than away from the batter. Also, five Nippon league teams have undersized home fields. A controversial rule also allows a team to have no more than four foreign players, limiting the cost and competition for expensive players of other nationalities and races.

[edit] Professional baseball

Nippon Professional Baseball started in 1920. It is called Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), which simply is a translation of professional baseball.

In 2005 the Japan Samurai Bears began playing in the Golden Baseball League, the first Japanese team in an American professional baseball league.

The Japanese first professional league was formed in 1936, and by 1950 had grown big enough to divide into two leagues. The Central League included the established teams; the Pacific League, which made up of new teams and players. Both leagues had 6 teams and adopted a playoff system, much like the American one. The contest between the league winners was named the Japan Series.

[edit] Strike of 2004

In September 2004, the owners and the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) met to discuss the merger of two teams. Prior to this, the JPBPA had decided to strike on weekends for the remainder of September. They held talks with the owners and with the JPB. The owners offered to help the players by reducing the "entry fee" to join the league; they guaranteed that the Chiba Lotte Marines and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, both of the Pacific League, and the two leagues would remain; the Central League would have six teams, and the Pacific League would have five. They also put the merger of the Buffaloes and Blue Wave on hold.

The players decided to strike, as there was insufficient time left in the season to hold discussions. On 18 and 19 September 2004, the professional Japanese players struck for the first time in over seventy years. The fans supported the players, which made the owners review the idea of finding another team for the following season.

On September 23, 2004, the players and owners reached an agreement: the Tohuku Rakuten Eagles would enter the league at the beginning of the 2005 season, and the leagues would adopt inter-league play, which would make the game more appealing, and would help the Pacific League gain exposure by playing the more popular Central league teams. In December 2004, Softbank Corporation, an internet service provider, purchased the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks to help with finances in the Pacific League.

[edit] High school baseball

Hanshin Kōshien Stadium during the 1992 Kōshien tournament

In Japan, high school baseball (高校野球: kōkō yakyū) generally refers to the 2 annual baseball tournaments played by high schools nationwide culminating at a final showdown at Hanshin Kōshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Japan. They are organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation in association with Mainichi Shimbun for the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament in the spring (also known as "Spring Kōshien") and Asahi Shimbun for the National High School Baseball Championship in the summer (also known as "Summer Kōshien").

These nationwide tournaments enjoy widespread popularity, arguably equal to or greater than professional baseball. Qualifying tournaments are often televised locally and each game of the final stage at Kōshien is televised nationally on NHK. The tournaments have become a national tradition, and large numbers of frenzied students and parents travel from hometowns to cheer for their local team. It is a common sight to see players walking off the field in tears after being eliminated from the tournament by a loss.

[edit] Amateur baseball

Amateur baseball leagues exist all over Japan, with many teams sponsored by companies. Amateur baseball is governed by the Japan Amateur Baseball Association (JABA).

[edit] International play

Japan has won the World Baseball Classic both times since the tournament was created. In the 2006 World Baseball Classic, they defeated Cuba in the finals and in 2009 World Baseball Classic they defeated South Korea in 10 innings to defend their title.

[edit] See also

• Japan
• Sport in Japan
• Japan national baseball team
• Asahi Tigers

[edit] References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (June 2009)

[edit] Articles/Books

• International Journal of Employment Studies 14.2 (Oct 2006): p19(17). (5318 words)
• Ofra Bikel, Gail Harris, Judy Woodruff, et al., American Game, Japanese Rules (Alexandria, Va.: PBS Video, 1990).
• Richard C. Crepeau, "Pearl Harbor: A Failure of Baseball?," The Journal of Popular Culture xv.4 (1982): 67-74.
• Warren Cromartie Robert Whiting, Slugging It out in Japan: An American Major Leaguer in the Tokyo Outfield (New York: Signet, 1992).
• Charles W. Hayford, "Japanese Baseball or Baseball in Japan?," Japan Focus (April 4 2007): [1]. Reprinted: "Samurai Baseball: Off Base or Safe At Home?" Frog in a Well (April 10, 2007) [2].
• William Kelly, "Blood and Guts in Japanese Professional Baseball," in Sepp Linhard and Sabine Frustuck, ed., The Culture of Japan as Seen through Its Leisure (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998): 95-111.
• William Kelly, "Caught in the Spin Cycle: An Anthropological Observer at the Sites of Japanese Professional Baseball," in Susan O. Long, ed., Moving Targets: Ethnographies of Self and Community in Japan. (Ithaca, 2000)
• William Kelly, "The Spirit and Spectacle of School Baseball: Mass Media, Statemaking, and 'Edu-Tainment' in Japan, 1905-1935," in William Kelly Umesao Tadao, and Kubo Masatoshi, ed., Japanese Civilization in the Modern World Xiv: Information and Communication (Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 2000): 105-116.
• William W. Kelly, Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2004).
• William Kelly, "Is Baseball a Global Sport? America's 'National Pastime' as a Global Sport," Global Networks 7.2 (2007):
• Donald Roden, "Baseball and the Quest for National Dignity in Meiji Japan," The American Historical Review 85.3 (1980): 534.
• Robert Whiting, The Chrysanthemum and the Bat: Baseball Samurai Style (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1977).
• Robert Whiting, You Gotta Have Wa: When Two Cultures Collide on the Baseball Diamond (New York: Vintage Books, Vintage departures, 1990).
• Robert Whiting, "The Japanese Way of Baseball and the National Character Debate," Japan Focus (September 29 2006):
• Robert Whiting, "The Japanese Way of Baseball and the National Character Debate," Studies on Asia Series III 3 (Fall 2006): [3]
• Donald Roden, "baseball and the quest for national dignity in Meiji Japan"

[edit] External links

• Baseball In Japan, a WBGU-PBS documentary
• Japan Baseball Daily
• Which Japanese talent will shine in '08?
• Latham's 1998 Guide to Japanese Baseball...