ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the history of the development of Japanese baseball as a national sport. It discusses the athletic, cultural, and business aspects that distinguish Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) from other national baseball leagues. Covered are such landmark events as the introduction of baseball into Japan, its growth as a university sport and then corporate sport; its postwar peak, and its “existential crisis” in 2004. This chapter analyzes the vertical relationship between parent company and franchise that drove the development of the NPB through the second half of the twentieth century and how this model has been difficult to sustain. It explains how baseball has endured, evolved, and won an enduring place in the hearts of Japanese fans.
