Baseball in Japan is commonly known as ‘yakyu’. Nippon Professional Baseball, or NPB, is Japan’s most popular competition and is similar to Major League Baseball in North America. Like across the Atlantic, it is also fed by affiliated or independent leagues. The NPB takes place every year from April to August and pits two leagues, Central and Pacific, each with six teams, against each other. Since 1949, Japanese teams have competed within a single league. The NPB is the second-largest baseball event in the world behind MLB. Each team plays 144 regular-season games: twenty-four against each team in their own league and four against each team in the other league.
The top three teams from each league qualify for the playoffs. In each league, the regular-season first-place team advances directly to the finals. The second- and third-place teams face off in the ‘wild-card’ round, best-of-three series. The winner meets the regular-season first-place team in a best-of-six series, with the first-place team having a one-game advantage. The first-place team must win three games to qualify, while their opponent must win four. The champions of both leagues meet in the ‘Japan Series’, a best-of-seven series.
Several French players have played in Japan’s professional circuit. The first was Arnaud Fau (1996-1998), followed by Jamel Boutagra in the same years. Others include Hanvi, Lemestre, Matthieu Brelle-Andrade… Another major event in Japanese baseball is the Koshien. This extraordinary high school competition will be the subject of a future article. Pictured in the uniform of the Hanshin Tigers: Boutagra, Lemestre, and Brelle-Andrade. In the Los Angeles Angels uniform: Shohei Ohtani, the most popular Japanese player in MLB today. Number 99, Fred Hanvi, for Tokyo’s Bambataa.
Vincent Picard.
