Baseball in Japan. While Baseball

¶ … baseball in Japan. While baseball is the national sport in the United States of America it has also undergone an amazing development in Japan as well. In the paragraphs to come we will examine the history of this sport in Japan, trying to explain the process through which it became a relevant activity.

In addition we will try to compare the differences which are to be found in the cultural meanings which are associated with this sport by the two nations. Last but not least we will try to explain why Japan shaped the game in a direction in which the U.S.A. did not.

The first thing that we need to mention when speaking about Japan and baseball is that baseball is the most popular sport in this country. When you think that it is also the national sport in the United Sates of America, one can only remain amazed and wonder how was this possible. When did the Japanese take up this sport and how come that it gained so much popularity in a culture that is so different from the American one? Or the other way around, does the fact that the Japanese people love this sport so much tell us something about how similar they are to the Americans as far as the thinking paradigm is concerned?

The truth is that the cultural differences between Japan and the United States are so big and so deeply rooted that not even the popularity of a sport like baseball could do anything to diminish them. then the only valid hypothesis we might start with is the fact that while it is played in both countries, baseball must have a different cultural significance.

Let us analyze the development of this sport in Japan first. Baseball was introduced in the year 1872 by a foreigner by the name of Horace Wilson. He was a teacher at a Japanese school. The sport was popular from the very beginning and only six years later the first official baseball team was created. The history of the creation of this first team, called the Simbashi Athletic Club's very interesting. The sport was introduced by a professor but it was a other man who played a determining role in developing it.

This man was a worker for the national railways and he was the one to present the sport to his colleagues. They were so enthusiastic about the game that they created the very first team. Other teams were created soon after since the sport was gaining popularity all over the territory of Japan, but it must be underlined that the first team kept beating all the other ones.

However it was a study environment which contributed to the further development of this sport. The story becomes even more interesting at this point. The students at the Tokyo University also took up the sport and they were practicing it with the discipline, effort and dedication that Japanese people usually employ in all their activities. In 1896 this supported a miraculous event, when this very team succeeded in beating an American team, that is the Athletic Club 29. Not only did the Japanese win but the final score was 29 to 4.

That was an absolute victory and it had a lot of symbolical meanings. The sport was imported from the U.S.A. And yet, after such a shirt time, the Japanese had apparently become better than the exporters of the game. That was the first game of baseball to be officially recorded in the entire region of Asia.

Symbolically it demonstrated that the Japanese were very good at what they were doing if they set their mind to it. It also demonstrated that the capacity to learn of this people was extremely efficient. In addition the Japanese victory made a symbolical point regarding the power balance between Japan and the United States. After all the defeated team came from a country where baseball was a part of tradition and where children were taught to play it from an early age.

In a way the Japanese were beating the Americans at their own game and that must have triggered a strong reaction of national pride as well. Regardless of all speculation after this victory many other universities in Japan took up the sport and as a consequence its popularity increased throughout the entire country. The fact that the sport underwent strong popularity among the young educated people is very important.

It helps us understand that fir them it represented a challenge and through that, it became an additional means through which they could develop themselves. Even more, being popular among the young and educated made it the fashion of the time. Since everybody wishes to be fashionable and follow the latest trends in order to better fit in, it is easy to understand how the popularity of the sport reached other social categories of all ages.

Naturally a single victory did not mean that the Japanese were actually better than the Americans at this sport. Baseball was after all the national sport in America and the best players were to be found there. Therefore the Japanese teams started to travel abroad in order to get the chance to see the American players at work.

In seeing them they wanted to improve their own skills. Soon after the Japanese college teams bean to play in the U.S.A., with American teams. It is interesting to notice that they were not intimidated by the knowledge and the know how of the Americans, on the contrary they were keen on learning from direct experiences with them. By 1905 American teams were already travelling to Japan to play with local teams. An international circuit had been opened, a clear sign that the Japanese were getting better at the game.

There are however some technical differences which were allowed, such as a smaller ball, strike zone and playing field. This fact could be owed to the differences in weight and stature of the Japanese people. The fact that one of the rules allows for a team to play with a number if only our players led to a lot of controversy. Naturally this is not accepted in the U.S.A., but it Japan it was favoured because it helped reduce the costs.

Reducing the costs of the field and the players allowed the Japanese management to buy other players, who came fro other countries, therefore improving the performances of their teams in a relevant manner. Another controversial measure which is accepted in Japan refers to the fact that ties are accepted. This has a very strong symbolical meaning and it allows us to understand the different conceptions of the challenge. While for the Americans there can be only one winner, the Japanese people can accept that under certain circumstances, two entities can reach the same level of performance. Reading between the lines we might understand that the Americans are more focused on the win while the Japanese are more concerned with the actual playing.

The professional baseball started in 1920. The stadium was completed only in 1988 but the sport has been gaining popularity on a constant basis. From a certain point-of-view it could be stated that it has become one of the national sports in Japan as well. some of the rule still differ but the truth is that the Japanese have become important baseball players at international level. In addition it must be mentioned that the body structure of the Japanese has been modifying with men becoming taller and stronger due to changes in alimentation.