Baseball has grown far from its home in Cooperstown, New York, becoming a beloved international game. The United States and Japan are hosts to the two most popular professional baseball leagues today, Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball. These leagues serve as symbols for the bond the game provided between those countries at a vulnerable time in Japanese history.
After the Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown in 1868 and imperial rule returned to Japan, Emperor Meiji recruited people from the Western world to rapidly familiarize his country with the industrialization and culture they had been shielded from for over 200 years.
This extreme modernization and Westernization of Japanese culture was called the Meiji Restoration. This effort came after a period of isolationism from 1639 to 1853 called Sakoku, implemented by the Tokugawa Shogunate.
In 1871, a farmer and Civil War veteran from Gorham, Maine, named Horace Wilson, was recruited to teach in Japan as part of the Meiji Restoration. Wilson shared baseball with his students at the Kaisei Gakko School, now known as the University of Tokyo. Hiroshi Hiraoka aided Wilson in teaching Japanese students but impacted the growth of the game most after returning from a trip to the U.S. in 1877.
Hiraoka returned to Japan after a six-year trip to baseball’s home country with new equipment and a translated baseball rulebook. Perhaps most significantly, he established the first Japanese organized baseball team, the Shimbashi Athletic Club.
Beyond this small, organized club, baseball took off in wealthy Japanese high schools and colleges. American colleges began sending teams over to compete with Japan’s collegiate teams, the first being the University of Wisconsin in 1878. The Badgers won three straight games against Keio University before losing the final game of the series 8-0.
Still, at this time, only well-funded colleges and high schools had any interest in baseball in Japan until a watershed moment in 1896. That summer, the Yokohama Cricket and Athletic Club (YC&AC) played a four-game series against Ichiko High School. The YC&AC was a fully foreign team going up against a Japanese high school, drawing great interest from local fans.
The series wasn’t initially supposed to be four games, but after a 29-4 victory by Ichiko in the first game, YC&AC requested a rematch. Again, the Tokyo high schoolers won, this time 28-9. This sparked another rematch request, pinning the Japanese schoolboys against a team of navy men of the USS Detroit, resulting in a 22-6 loss for the foreign squad.
A fourth and final rematch was requested, scheduled to be played on July 4, 1896. This game came down to the wire as YC&AC narrowly escaped with a 14-12 victory after putting up a four-run ninth inning.
This series brought national attention to baseball across Japan. The game expanded rapidly as it aligned with cultural values such as collectivism and challenged the kodawari mentality, the pursuit of perfection.
As the game spread, American all-star teams made trips out to Japan to promote the game. The most famous of the expeditions came in 1934. Led by Connie Mack, the winningest manager in MLB history (3,731), the Americans sent a star-studded roster to Tokyo featuring greats like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and more.
The fanfare this group generated left a lasting impression on Matsutaro Shoriki, the media mogul who orchestrated this 1934 tour. Inspired by this, Shoriki established Japan’s first professional baseball team, the Great Tokyo Baseball Club.
This team toured the U.S. in 1935, playing against colleges and minor league squads. When the team returned to Japan, they were renamed the Yomiuri Tokyo Giants as they joined six other teams in the inaugural season of NPB in 1936.
This league remains the pinnacle of baseball outside of the U.S. and has been home to countless greats since its founding. Of the legends, Saduharu Oh is widely regarded as the greatest player in NPB history.
Oh totaled 868 home runs in his 22-year career with the Yomiuri Tokyo Giants, over 200 more than any other player in NPB history and 96 more than the MLB all-time leader, Barry Bonds.
The greatness of Japanese players stretched far beyond NPB, though, as some of the greatest talents began to leak into MLB. The first Japanese-born player to appear in the majors in the U.S. was Masanori Murakami. Murakami started his professional career with the Nankai Hawks of the NPB in 1963 at 19 years old.
After being sent to the San Francisco Giants for development, the Japanese southpaw made his MLB debut on Sept. 1, 1964, pitching one inning against the New York Mets and finishing with two strikeouts. Murakami returned to Nankai in 1966 and remained in NPB for the remainder of his playing career.
Eventually, a system of MLB clubs posting a fee to acquire the rights to NPB talent was adopted in 1998. This change was implemented after Hideo Nomo found a loophole in the original NPB reserve policy when he retired from NPB and submitted himself as an MLB free agent, signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995.
Ichiro Suzuki was the first Japanese player to transfer from NPB to MLB using this new system, as the Seattle Mariners paid over $13 million to the Orix Blue Wave for his posting fee. Suzuki became the first Japanese hitter to play in MLB, making a statement in his first season by winning the 2001 American League MVP award.
After a 28-year career, Suzuki retired from baseball in 2019. Between his time in NPB and MLB, Suzuki finished with the most hits of all time (4,367). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2025, falling one vote short of being the second unanimous induction ever.
After Suzuki’s greatness was passed from league to league, there was no stopping the floodgate of talent that still runs between the U.S. and Japan. The most prominent example of Japanese talent being passed between the leagues today is Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani’s impact on baseball is undeniable. The two-way ability that the Oshu, Japan native possesses is like no other in baseball history. The only possible comparison to Ohtani is The Great Bambino, as they are the only players in MLB history with over 500 strikeouts as a pitcher and 200 home runs as a hitter.
Not only has Ohtani’s prowess earned him a record-breaking contract, but it has also helped his country achieve on the highest stage in baseball, the World Baseball Classic. In 2023, Japan defeated the U.S. in the WBC final, collecting the country’s third title in five tournaments.
Ohtani secured the 3-2 victory by striking out his former teammate and three-time MVP Mike Trout. Now, as Ohtani nurses back into pitching form, he continues to prove himself as one of the best baseball players ever, creating the 50-homer/50-stolen-base club last season en route to his first World Series title.
Though it may seem like a great deal of NPB talent is jumping ship to play in MLB, rest assured, there will never be a shortage of players in Japan. Baseball has proven to be a staple in Japanese culture that will not leave because of the ever-growing love of the game. Between the rich history and exciting modern-day play, the U.S. and Japan will forever be united by baseball.
Tym Brown can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @tym_brown1.
