An Introduction on Japanese Professional Baseball

Baseball has been played in Japan for more than a century, and many Japanese regard the sport as a part of their culture. Over 4,000 Japanese high school teams compete for the national championship each year. Only about 50 teams can advance to the two major national championship tournaments, held in spring and summer at Koshien Stadium, the Mecca of high school baseball. The stadium,with a capacity of over 50,000, is packed with students, parents, and alumni who come from all over the country by chartered bus. Professional baseball is popular in Japan, too. The annual total attendance for the two professional leagues is estimated at over 20 million. During the season, games are telecast live almost every night. Tabloid newspapers featuring scores and players’ gossip sell millions of copies every day. Baseball players are national and local heroes for many Japanese. A 1996 survey showed being a baseball player the most popular career choice for elementary school boys.

Since its introduction into Japan in the second half of the 19^th century, the sport developed a unique character to fit the Japanese social and cultural climate. Indeed, Japanese baseball is a completely different type of sport from the game North Americans are familiar with, although the rules and regulations are almost identical.

History

Baseball was brought to the Japanese in the early 1870s by Americans teaching English and Western culture at colleges in Tokyo. The game instantly became a popular extracurricular activity among college students and clubs were formed by students at prestigious colleges. By the early 20^th century, intercollegiate games had become a major spectator phenomena, with colleges recruiting high school stars, and the Keio-Waseda three-game series became one of the country’s biggest baseball events. The rivalry was so heated that, lest their supporters fight each other and possibly cause riots, Keio and Waseda authorities decided to cancel the series in 1906. It was not resumed until 1925. The first 30 years of the century were the golden age of amateur baseball. The Tokyo Six Universities League,whose members are Keio,Waseda,Meiji,Hosei, Rikyo, and Tokyo Universities, was organized in 1925. Thousands of spectators packed the stadium and millions of people all over Japan listened to the games on radio. Major college clubs toured the continental United States and brought the latest knowledge and equipment back to Japan.College and semiprofessional teams from the United States visited Japan. Major League All-Stars and All-American teams, including such legendary players as Babe Ruth, Jimmy Foxx, and Lou Gehrig, played exhibition games in Japan. Semiprofessional teams were founded and sponsored by private corporations, as well as by public-sector organizations such as the Japan National Railways. Their national championship tournament started in 1927.

Social and Cultural Climate

Some effort has been made to explain why baseball became so popular in such a relatively short period in a country with no tradition ofWestern sports.Controlled by the feudal Tokugawa dynasty, Japan had closed its doors to the West until the 1850s. As information on advanced technologies, Western science, and culture flowed in after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, a sense of crisis deepened among the nation’s leaders and spread to ordinary people. Adopting the goal of catching up with and getting ahead of the West, Japanese eagerly and industriously adopted Western civilization—including Western sports. Besides baseball, rowing, rugby football, soccer (association football), and tennis were introduced into Japan.

Although the Japanese were good pupils, their understanding of Western culture tended to be superficial. It was impossible, or at least difficult, for them to fully appreciate the internal meaning of the culture. Baseball was no exception, and the Japanese adapted the psychology of baseball to their own cultural norms:

“The Japanese found the one-on-one battle between pitcher and batter similar in psychology to sumo and the martial arts. It involved split-second timing and a special harmony of mental and physical strength” (Whiting 1989, 28).

Ichiko College played a significant role in the early age of Japanese baseball. Most of the graduates of the school enrolled in the prestigious Imperial University of Tokyo and were expected to become national leaders, and their values, such as samurai spirit and Zen meditation, were strongly reflected in the game. The organization and structure of Ichiko’s baseball club were remarkably different from those of Western sports clubs. It was called Bu, which is closer to a military squad than a club.Bu was based on a rigid vertical hierarchy among students, and its members were required to be thoroughly loyal to the Bu. This version of baseball was spread widely, as Ichiko’s graduates became instructors and coaches at other colleges and high schools. Baseball’s popularity was further increased by business interests and technological advancements. Major newspapers were competing for sponsorship of tournaments to increase their circulation when radio stations started live broadcasting in 1927.Meanwhile, private railroad companies built stadiums along their train lines.

The Baseball Control Act, designed to promote the healthy development of baseball after problems occurred, led to the establishment of Japan’s first professional team. Since the act prohibited amateurs from playing with professionals, the Yomiuri Shinbun, a major national newspaper, which was planning to invite the Major League All-Stars in 1934, had to organize the All-Japan team, whose players were naturally regarded as professionals.The first professional team,established in 1934,was named the Tokyo Giants the next year.Even though the Japan Professional Baseball Association was formed in 1936 by seven clubs, professional baseball gained support slowly in its early days. World War II interrupted baseball’s development. Nationalists and militarists insisted that baseball should be banned because it came from the enemy, the United States.

Baseball and the Media

The Japanese returned to baseball quite quickly after World War II. The professional baseball league and the Tokyo Six Universities League resumed their activities in 1946. The National High School Baseball Summer Tournament was revived in the same year. In the 1950s professional baseball firmly established its status as the most popular spectator sport in Japan. One of the unique characteristics of Japanese professional baseball is that every club,with the exception of Hiroshima Carp, has been financed by large corporations for promotional purposes. In the early age of professional baseball,most clubs were owned either by railroad companies or by multimedia conglomerates. For instance, the Yomiuri Giants, formerly the Tokyo Giants, are a subsidiary of the Yomiuri Shinbun Group, whose members include a major nationwide newspaper and a major television network. Other clubs, such as the Hanshin Tigers and Kintetsu Buffaloes, are owned by private railroad companies.

The 1960s and 1970s constituted the era of the Yomiuri Giants. With superstars like Sadaharu Oh (1940–) and Shigeo Nagashima (1936–), they won nine Japan Championships in a row from 1965 to 1973. The club drew the largest crowds in both leagues, and its annual home game attendance consistently exceeded 3 million. The Giants remain the most popular team, but no longer dominate baseball.

The Globalization of Japanese Baseball

Japanese baseball is now entering a new era of globalization. In the past, despite international exchanges in baseball, they were essentially one-way relations. Japanese baseball imported most of its knowledge and technology from the United States in the early days. International games, frequently held in the early 20^th century, dwindled after World War II. In professional baseball, exchange activities with U.S. major leagues were limited to importing players and hosting exhibition games. Japanese baseball was virtually isolated for quite a long period.

All this has changed since the mid-1980s. At the amateur level, international exchanges have been as active as ever, particularly since baseball was admitted to the Olympic Games in 1984. All-Japan national teams have participated in many international tournaments. At the professional level, satellite television channels, which started service in the mid-1980s, have been televising major league games from the United States, and cable television stations have a channel exclusively for U.S. sports. These changes in the mass media have made many Japanese feel closer than ever to major league baseball in the United States.This tendency was further intensified when Hideo Nomo (1968–), ace pitcher of the Kintetsu Buffaloes, began playing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995.

Baseball in Japan has a long history at both the amateur and professional levels. The social and cultural conditions surrounding Japanese baseball have helped to make it quite a different game from its counterpart in the United States. But as the globalization of the sport continues, baseball in Japan is likely to be reconstructed again in a worldwide framework.