Baseball In Japan Research Articles

Influences of sociocultural and historical constraints on athletes’ developmental experiences: a case study of baseball in Japan

Many observers have pointed out how baseball in Japan is narrated, taught, and played differently from its counterpart in North America. Hard-work, selfless behaviors, and defensive and collectivistic strategies are described as the basic tenets of Japanese baseball, often referred to as ‘Samurai Baseball’. This paper aims to investigate sports and non-sporting constraints that define this distinct way of perceiving the game. Ecological psychology, arguing individuals’ actions should be investigated at the level of interactions which happen between them and their environment, provides the epistemological foundation for this study, while the Skilled Intentionality Framework, proposing behaviours occur amid specific sets of promoted values, gives the ontological base for investigating proximal and distal influences on Japanese ballplayers’ development. Using Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model as a theoretical framework, this paper demonstrates how coaches’ strategies and training proposals, as well as players’ skill-acquisition processes, are constrained by socio-cultural-historical features of the culture of reference.

Making Japan’s National Game: A Cultural History of Baseball in Japan

Making Japan’s National Game: A Cultural History of Baseball in Japan

Abe Isoo and His 1905 US Baseball Tour: Japan’s First Overseas School Excursion for a Sporting Competition

On 4 April 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War, Abe Isoo (1865–1949), the father of baseball in Japan, Christian intellectual, and professor of economics and political science at Waseda University, took his baseball players to the USA to play against American students and local players in California. Amidst the war and growing anti-Japanese sentiment in California, Abe realized his decade-long dream of participating in international athletic competitions in anticipation of such games contributing to the resolution of international conflicts without weapons. His two primary goals were that his students would experience “systematic scientific” baseball on its home soil and that they would broaden their international perspective. The tour marked the first school excursion sent from Japan for an overseas sporting event and also initiated Japan into the arena of international sporting competitions. This paper focuses on Abe’s view of physical education as seen in his 1905 US tour (4 April–29 June 1905).

짧지만 강렬했던, 그라운드의 이방인 장명부

The purpose of this study is to examine the life story on JanMg yeong-Boo who left a big mark on Korean professional baseball as the ‘Zainichi’ pitcher in the early Kroean baseball history. The findings of the study, using books, interview data, magazines, papers, documentaries and etc. as main data, were as follows: First, he started baseball for the first time in the fourth year of elementary school. After graduating from high school, he joined Yomiuri Giants, a prestigious baseball club, in 1968 asa non-designated player, and began his career as a professional baseball player. Second, after transferring from the Yomiuri to the Nankai Hawks by the 1973 trade, he showed his potential as a starting pitcher from 1973 to 1976 with a good record of 33 wins, 32 losses, and 3.15 ERA. He transferred again to Hiroshima Toyo-Carp in 1977. After that, in 1978 and 1980, he made 15 wins respectively and became the best pitcher in Japan. Thdir, in 1983, after receiving the salary cut notice from the Hiroshima club, Jang declared his retirement from thea ctive base of professional baseball in Japan and made a contract with Korean professional baseball Sammi Superstars with a total amount of 180 million won. He left the unprecedented records in the history of Korean professional baseball in only one season, the most games pitched as a starting pitcher (44 games), the most ocmplete games (36 games), the most pitching innings (427.1 innings), the most wins (30 wins), the most complete winning games (26 wins). In 1986, he was forced to leave the team due to a steady record decline frmo 1984 to 1986. Fourth, as a ‘Zainichi’, Jang, had been discriminated and despised in Japan, suffered discrimniation in Korea as well. Even though Jang’s personal reputations were not good, these should not distort hs iaccomplishments and influence as a Korean professional baseball player. Therefore, if you remove bias an dmisunderstanding from him, you will find tha the made a great contribution to the rapid development of Korean professional baseball in the early days.

高校野球界における金属製バットの導入と技術・戦術の変容 : 昭和40年代以降の甲子園大会を中心に

高校野球界における金属製バットの導入と技術・戦術の変容 : 昭和40年代以降の甲子園大会を中心に

The effectiveness of conservative management for disabled throwing shoulder in baseball: a systematic review of Japanese-language primary studies

Background: Conservative management is often the first-choice treatment for baseball players with disabled throwing shoulder (DTS). Considering the high popularity of baseball in Japan, we suspected that there might be some evidence regarding this topic in the Japanese-language literature.Objective: This study aimed to systematically review Japanese-language primary studies investigating the effectiveness of conservative management for DTS in baseball.Methods: Eight databases were systematically searched from inception to 7 April 2016. Data on authors, publication years, sample characteristics, types of interventions, outcome measures and results were extracted. Data were synthesised qualitatively.Results: Seven studies with low evidence level and low-to-moderate study quality were included. Interventions examined in the included studies were downward throwing, combined physiotherapy interventions and joint distension. Forming correction, stretching for posterior shoulder muscles and strengthening exercises to improve scapular/trunk stability were commonly used in combined physiotherapy interventions. Downward throwing and combined physiotherapy interventions corresponded with expert opinions described in the English-language literature. Due to the lack of studies with high level of evidence, however, it was difficult to determine the genuine effects of these interventions.Conclusion: Our systematic review found limited evidence about the effectiveness of any conservative management for baseball players with DTS. Although downward throwing and combined physiotherapy interventions might be appropriate management in some cases, further studies of higher level of evidence and greater methodological rigour are required.

Comment on “Role of Sport in International Relations: National Rebirth and Renewal”

Comment on “Role of Sport in International Relations: National Rebirth and Renewal”

Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador by Dennis Snelling

Reviewed by: Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador by Dennis Snelling C. Paul Rogers III Dennis Snelling. Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017. 355 pp. Cloth, $27.95 I’m an unabashed Lefty O’Doul fan and in fact cannot visit San Francisco without a stop at the restaurant bearing Lefty’s name (and many wonderful photos of him) just off Union Square. So I happily devoured Dennis Snelling’s full length biography of O’Doul, all to my betterment. First, the book is aptly titled for O’Doul’s role in popularizing baseball in Japan, both before and after World War II, is today largely forgotten. This biography, thoroughly researched, well written and full of fascinating anecdotes, will help to rectify that. O’Doul is in a real sense one of the founders of Japanese professional baseball, as the author recounts in some detail. O’Doul first organized a barnstorming tour to Japan after the 1934 World Series which included the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, and Moe Berg among others. After the tour O’Doul remained in Japan for several weeks to help organize professional baseball there. He suggested that the Tokyo team be called the Giants, after the New York Giants team he played for in the United States (135). The club even adopted the New York Giants orange and black color scheme. Of course, O’Doul’s imprint in Japan remains as today the Tokyo Giants continue to be the most popular and successful team in Japanese professional baseball history, replete with their orange and black trimmed uniforms. The author points out that in 2002, Japanese baseball rectified a significant oversight by electing O’Doul to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (280). That long overdue honor brings up an interesting corollary point; O’Doul’s non-election to our Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. After all, O’Doul was an exceptional ballplayer and has an astonishing lifetime batting average of .349 in 11 major league seasons (his minor league batting average over parts of 16 seasons was .352). The rub, however, is longevity because O’Doul was a major league regular for only six of those 11 seasons. Still, as the author duly notes, those six seasons were remarkable. After hitting .319 for the New York Giants in 1928, he had two gargantuan years with [End Page 204] the Philadelphia Phillies, batting a league-leading .398 (one hit from a .400 season) in 1929 and then .383 in 1930. In 1929 he pounded out a major league record 254 hits. After “slumping” to .336 in 1931 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he again led the league in hitting in 1932 with a .368 average. He then hit .286 in 1933 before finishing his big-league career as a part-time player while batting .316 in 1934. The author suggests that O’Doul’s own stubbornness may have cost him a spot in the Hall of Fame. He broke into the major leagues with the New York Yankees in 1919 as a 22-year-old pitcher with indifferent success. In fact, in parts of four big league seasons on the mound he won only one game. But, although his batting skills began to emerge during that time, O’Doul stubbornly refused to give up pitching and become a full-time outfielder (40). He finally did become a position player in 1924 and put together four exceptional years in the Pacific Coast League with the Salt Lake City Bees, Hollywood Stars, and the San Francisco Seals. However, by the time the New York Giants purchased O’Doul’s contract in 1928 and he became a big league regular, he was 31 years old. Thus, when O’Doul left the big leagues after the 1934 season to begin a long and distinguished career as a manager in the Pacific Coast League, he was turning 38. One might ask why it took O’Doul so long to return to the big leagues after switching to the outfield, since he hit .392, 375, .338, and .378 in those four PCL seasons. In part, according to the author...

Double binding of Japanese colonialism: trajectories of baseball in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea

ABSTRACTThis study explores the historic implications of baseball within the larger processes of constructing modernity under Japanese colonialism by examining the game's regional trajectory, with a focus on its introduction and proliferation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although baseball was initially introduced into the region as a symbol of American modernity, it was spread and popularized by Imperial Japan. By examining the ways that baseball was received and appropriated in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, this study demonstrates that its trajectory reflects not only colonization by both the USA and Japan but resistance that amounted to a double de-colonization against both of these entities. The term ‘double binding’ is heuristically used to illustrate both Japanese imperialism and postcolonial consciousness in its (former) colonies, in which the USA and Japan functioned as a pair of modernizing/imperial forces and as the objects of de-colonization.

A Study on the baseball team management of professional baseball in Japan ―Based on the relation of team performance, salary and spectator attendance―

A Study on the baseball team management of professional baseball in Japan ―Based on the relation of team performance, salary and spectator attendance―

Globalisation, Individualism and Scandal: New Directions in Japanese Baseball

When Hideo Nomo exploited a contractual loophole to transfer from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) to Major League Baseball in 1994, he provided the catalyst for change in the relationship between individual players and teams in Japan's number one sport. Nomo's ‘defection’ changed player/team attitudes as emphasis shifted from one of mutual trust to one based heavily on contracts. The Japanese version of sportsmanship until that point had been one that relied on the loyalty of players to a paternal and protective owner. The mutual trust established through a combination of loyalty and obligation was not unique to baseball, rather it should be seen as a reflection of many aspects of Japanese culture. By the turn of the century, baseball in Japan has changed greatly and this is especially so for not only labour relations in NPB but also High School Baseball. In 2007, it was revealed that 7921 high school players had been given illegal financial assistance causing a scandal that had repercussions throughout Japanese society. This paper investigates the implications of this change, particularly on NPB. The analysis extends to consider the broader effects this event had on baseball, especially within the Japanese education system.

An Indispensable but Fragile Geopolitical Triangle: Baseball in Japan, Korea and Taiwan

Baseball is not only a popular sport, but also a central cultural and social symbol in Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese societies. These nations have produced some tremendous performances internationally, from the World Little League Competition to the Olympic Games. Most significantly, in the recently instituted World Baseball Classic, Japan won all previous tournaments – 2006 and 2009 – with South Korea winning Silver in 2009 and Bronze in 2006. Baseball in the region has, however, always been embroiled in the maelstrom of domestic politics, international relations and economic difficulties. Exchanges at all levels between these three nations have rarely been congenial, proactive or stable. As the world and baseball enter into a new era of globalisation and internationalisation, this triangular sporting relationship appears to be awkward and clumsy, even though player mobility, media exposure and international competitions continue to grow. This paper overviews the historical development of baseball in these powerhouses of Asian baseball, with an emphasis on the inevitable and fragile relationships between them, discussing the social and political factors underpinning these relationships.

A Sustainable Business Model of Minor League Baseball in Japan Based on a Comparison of the US and Japanese Baseball Businesses

A Sustainable Business Model of Minor League Baseball in Japan Based on a Comparison of the US and Japanese Baseball Businesses

Wally Yonamine: the man who changed Japanese baseball

Wally Yonamine was both the first Japanese American to play for an NFL franchise and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II. This is the unlikely story of how a shy young man from the sugar plantations of Maui overcame prejudice to integrate two professional sports in two countries. In 1951 the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants chose Yonamine as the first American to play in Japan during the Allied occupation. He entered Japanese baseball when mistrust of Americans was high-and higher still for Japanese Americans whose parents had left the country a generation earlier. Without speaking the language, he helped introduce a hustling style of base running, shaking up the game for both Japanese players and fans. Along the way, Yonamine endured insults, dodged rocks thrown by fans, initiated riots, and was threatened by yakuza (the Japanese mafia). He also won batting titles, was named the 1957 MVP, coached and managed for twenty-five years, and was honored by the emperor of Japan. Overcoming bigotry and hardship on and off the field, Yonamine became a true national hero and a member of Japan's Baseball Hall of Fame. In addition to the foreword by Hawaiian senator Daniel K. Inouye, this Nebraska Paperback edition features a new preface by the author, commemorating Yonamine at his death in early 2011.

Samurai Baseball: The Vicissitudes of a National Sporting Style

The conventional view of Japan's national pastime, baseball, is that it is a sport misshapen from an original exuberant American game by a Japanese national propensity to slavish loyalty and uncritical adherence to form. This substantially misrepresents the trajectory of baseball in Japan by substituting an illusory appeal to national character stereotypes for a serious historical sociology of sport. Abe and Mangan, among others, have already uncovered the complex influences of British athleticism and sportsmanship on early Japanese sport philosophies. This article depicts the subsequent history of Japanese baseball as a complex interplay of nationalized sporting style, educational pedagogy, urban entertainment, media creation, local identity and the realities of sports practices.

Is baseball a global sport? America's ‘national pastime’ as global field and international sport

Abstract A myriad of organized sports and physical leisure activities took shape in the nineteenth century and spread quickly from the West to the Rest through imperial and mercantile circuits. Among them, the competitive team spectator sports of soccer, cricket, and baseball were perhaps the most consequential in reach and influence, adopted and adapted in what I have called elsewhere ‘uncanny mimicry’. The differences in the world histories of the three sports are as significant as their commonalities, and in this article I focus on some of the distinctive features of baseball's development in the USA and its move through the Caribbean and the western Pacific regions. Unlike soccer and cricket (and American football), baseball developed outside elite schools; it was fully commercialized and professionalized early on; it never had antagonisms or rivalries with amateur or school forms of the sport; and it never had very strong ideological associations with a ‘character’ ethic. On the other hand, it was quickly ‘nationalized’ as the American pastime, and in that image it was emulated and resisted in the locations in which it took root. The argument is extended through a case study of ‘samurai’ baseball in Japan and its uncanny mimicry.

Remembering Japanese baseball: an oral history of the game

Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game transports us onto diamonds and into dugouts on the other side of the globe, where the vigorous sportsmanship of the game and the impassioned devotion of its fans transcend cultural and geographic borders and prove that baseball is fast becoming an international pastime. Called Yakyu, baseball has been played in Japan since the 1890s but has only recently gained a substantial global following. Robert K. Fitts chronicles the nation's distinctive version of the sport as recounted by twenty-five of its players. Fitts's careful choice of subjects represents the experiences of a mix of American and Japanese players - including stars, titleholders, and members of the Japanese Hall of Fame. Informal, candid, and remarkably specific, these recollections describe teammates and opponents, corporate owners and loyal fans, triumphs and frustrations, collectively capturing all the spirit and emotion engendered by the game from decidedly personal vantage points. Throughout, readers glimpse the unique traits of baseball in Japan and discern how the game has evolved since its inception as well as how it differs from its American counterpart. An unparalleled introduction for an American audience, Remembering Japanese Baseball is augmented by photos of its twenty-five interviewees and a timeline demarking milestone moments in the game's Japanese history. Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa! and The Meaning of Ichiro, provides the foreword.

The relationship between supervisor and workers — The case of professional baseball in Japan

This paper analyzes the relationship between the workers' productivity and the supervisor from the point of view of the Matching Hypothesis using data from professional baseball in Japan. The main findings of this paper are the following three points. The first point is that the Matching Hypothesis is rejected in the case of pitchers and hitters. The second one is that the depreciation rate of the effect is about 10–15% per year and differs from zero significantly. Hence, the effect continues for a long time after the matching is broken. Lastly, we cannot find a learning curve for the managers' ability.

Testing the Matching Hypothesis: The Case of Professional Baseball in Japan with Comparisons to the United States

We test the matching hypothesis using data on professional baseball managers in Japan. First, we find that the productivity of managers does not depend on the team he manages. Second, we find that the hazard rate first increases and then decreases as tenure increases for rookie managers but not for veteran managers. Third, the variance of managers′ wages decreases as tenure increases for rookies but not for veterans. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the match between the manager and the team does not affect the productivity of the team. Thus, the matching hypothesis is rejected in the case of Japan, unlike in the case of the United States. However, managers are found to be experience goods in both countries. J. Japan. Int. Econ., June 1994, 8(2), pp. 204–209. Japan; and Department of Economics, Ritsumeikan University, Tojiin-Kitamachi, Kita-ku, Kyoto 603, Japan.

Baseball in Japan

(1930). Baseball in Japan. The Journal of Health and Physical Education: Vol. 1, No. 5, pp. 9-52.