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Japanese Baseball, Light and Shadow: The Untold Side of Pro Baseball
In the early Meiji era, an American teacher introduced a foreign ball game to a handful of students, and over half a century it transformed into this country's national sport. The fervor of students, a way of baseball bound up with bushido, and the birth of professional baseball in 1936. This is the story of how it began, tracing why the Japanese became so captivated by the game.
- 01 How Baseball Took Root in Japan — Arrival and the Birth of a Craze In the early Meiji era, an American teacher introduced a foreign ball game to a handful of students, and over half a century it transformed into this country's national sport. The fervor of students, a way of baseball bound up with bushido, and the birth of professional baseball in 1936. This is the story of how it began, tracing why the Japanese became so captivated by the game.
- 02 War and Baseball — Suspension and Revival Baseball, born in America, is swept up in the currents of war. Branded an enemy sport, its terms are rendered into Japanese, and in time the league itself is suspended. Yet upon the burnt ruins, baseball once again won back the fervor of the people. From suspension to revival, and on to the split into two leagues in 1950, this episode traces a turbulent dozen years and more.
- 03 The Black Mist Scandal — Match-Fixing and a Crisis of Trust in Baseball Between 1969 and 1971, Japanese professional baseball faced one of the gravest crises of trust in its history. Match-fixing came to light, and one disciplinary measure followed another. Why did it happen? Rather than condemning individuals, this account calmly traces how the game lost the public's trust and how it tried to rebuild it, looking at the structure behind it all — players' conditions and the points of contact with gambling.
- 04 The Draft and Money — The Feud Over Acquiring Players The draft system began in 1965 in the hope of balancing the strength of the teams. Yet the feud over the price of players continued afterward, changing its form. Debates over reverse nomination and the free-acquisition slot, the money problems that came to the surface, and then the reform of the system. This account traces half a century of the path of acquiring players, which kept swaying between the ideal and reality.
- 05 The Structure of Dominance — The Age of the Giants and Terrestrial Broadcasting After the war, the Giants built a national following alongside television. But those nationwide broadcasts were also a structure that concentrated popularity and revenue in a single team. The light of enthusiasm, and the shadow of the Central-Pacific gap. We take a calm look at the mechanism of dominance that long supported Japanese baseball, and eventually began to waver.
- 06 Baseball Realignment 2004 — The Year the Fans Moved In 2004, one team was about to disappear. The merger of the Kintetsu Buffaloes and Orix, the first players' strike in history, and the new entry of Rakuten. Anger, petitions, voices from the stands — we calmly trace the turning point at which fans moved the baseball world, taking into account the circumstances of each side.
- 07 The Shadow of Baseball Gambling — Money and Antisocial Forces In 2015, baseball gambling by Giants players came to light. From the revelation to contract terminations and indefinite disqualifications. Why is gambling the greatest taboo in the game? We calmly trace the crisis of trust since the Black Mist scandal and the efforts to prevent recurrence, staying within the bounds of officially confirmed sanctions.
- 08 The Darkness of Violence and Coaching — Beyond Corporal Punishment and Hazing When does coaching for victory turn into violence? We trace, neutrally and based on the historical record, the cases in which corporal punishment, hazing, and distorted hierarchies became public issues, the 2013 Declaration for the Eradication of Violence in the sports world, and recent coaching reforms such as pitch-count limits.
- 09 The Road to the Majors — The Lineage from Nomo In 1995, a single pitcher crossed the Pacific. Hideo Nomo's challenge opened a road that would lead to Ichiro and Hideki Matsui. The posting system and money, the drain of talent as both light and shadow — we trace, calmly and faithfully to the record, what the players who crossed the sea left behind for Japanese baseball.
- 10 The Future of Japanese Baseball — Beyond Light and Shadow Match-fixing, gambling, violence, realignment, and talent crossing the sea — the final chapter of a series that has seen both light and shadow. The fervor and internationalization of the WBC, governance reform, player development and local roots. We quietly take a fresh look at where Japanese baseball is heading, neither condemning nor beautifying.