What the Two Rules Share - Grounds Given as a Precept and a Team Spirit
Yomiuri has two rules about how its players look and what they wear on the field. One is a grooming rule that, according to reports, bars dyed hair, long hair and facial hair as a rule. The other, announced by the club on November 23, 2022, is the game uniform that from the 2023 season dropped player names from the back and kept only the number.
What the two share is that their grounds have been given as a founder's precept and a team spirit, with no published text and no reason that can be checked. J-CAST News wrote that the grooming rule goes back to the precept of founder Matsutaro Shoriki, "The Yomiuri Giants must always be gentlemen." The removal of names was explained by manager Tatsunori Hara's words, "The Yomiuri Giants must not be a team of individuals," and by the spirit of "FOR THE TEAM."
| Item | Rule | Club's explanation | Reaction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dyed hair, long hair, facial hair | Banned as a rule | No text shown | Criticism and support |
| Names on game uniforms | Number only | FOR THE TEAM spirit | "Hard to tell" voices |
| Names on replicas | Names kept | Kept with names | Not in reports |
As the second and third rows show, the game uniform dropped the names and the replicas kept them.
The Grooming Rule - Dyed Hair, Long Hair and Facial Hair Barred as a Rule
In an article on January 13, 2021, J-CAST News wrote that dyed hair, long hair and facial hair are, as a rule, banned at Yomiuri, and traced the origin to Shoriki's precept, "The Yomiuri Giants must always be gentlemen." Players who arrive from other clubs, it said, also keep the rule in the spirit of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." Neither the J-CAST article nor the club's announcement gives the text of the rule, the year it was adopted, any penalty or any explanation from club executives. Shoriki's precept is also covered in Yomiuri Giants Draft Controversies.
Facial hair is not banned outright. Kaname Yashiki, who moved from Yokohama in 1994, was allowed to keep the mustache that was his trademark and played without shaving it; J-CAST called the case "rare." Michihiro Ogasawara, who moved from Nippon-Ham as a free agent in 2007, shaved off his mustache and beard even though Tsuneo Watanabe, then the club's chairman, had allowed him to keep them. "Something new was starting, and I had decided on this all along. I thought of it as a man's way of drawing a line. It is not about looks. The heart is what matters most," Ogasawara said.
Takayuki Kajitani, who moved from DeNA as a free agent in the 2020 offseason, shaved the beard he had worn for years before his introductory press conference. Eric Thames, a newly signed foreign player whose long beard was his trademark, also said after agreeing to terms that he would shave it. J-CAST did not report that the club had instructed either player.
The same article contrasted other clubs: Central League players tend to keep black hair, while dyed or blond hair is common in the Pacific League. As regulars who had dyed their hair a lighter color, it named Yuki Yanagita of SoftBank, Tomoya Mori and Hotaka Yamakawa of Seibu, Sho Nakata and Haruki Nishikawa of Nippon-Ham, and Taisuke Yamaoka of ORIX, and for facial hair it named Lotte's Ishikawa. Ishikawa was a first-round pick in the 2013 draft over whom Yomiuri and Lotte competed, and the article wrote that had the lottery sent him to Yomiuri, he might be pitching with a very different look. Fan comments ran both ways: criticism that "the idea that dyed hair and beards look sloppy is outdated," and support saying that a club strict about appearance, like the Yankees, is part of the team's identity, which parents of young baseball fans appreciate.
The Uniform Without Names - The Announcement of November 23, 2022
On November 23, 2022, the Yomiuri Giants announced their 2023 home uniform under a comprehensive global partnership with Nike and Fanatics. At the unveiling during Fan Festa 2022 at Tokyo Dome, manager Hara and four players, including Kazuma Okamoto and Shosei Togo, took the stage in uniforms bearing the Nike logo. The design drew on the "dignified, traditional style" worn from 1953 to 1960 by Shigeo Nagashima, the club's lifetime honorary manager, among others, and kept the embroidered lettering. How lettering and number designs on uniforms have changed is summarized in Baseball Fashion Trends.
On the back of the jersey, the announcement said: "The back carries only the uniform number. This respects the words manager Hara spoke at his 2018 press conference on returning as manager, 'Winning is the greatest goal, and the Yomiuri Giants must not be a team of individuals.' Always mindful of the spirit of 'FOR THE TEAM,' we hope the feelings of the team, the front office and the fans will become one." Hara's comment in the same announcement was: "I am very encouraged and proud that the Yomiuri Giants have been able to join the Nike family, loved by fans around the world, and gain wonderful new partners." The players spoke of looking forward to wearing the Nike uniform and of their determination. None of the comments in the announcement mentioned the names on the back.
The club's official Uniform page, under the heading "The 'FOR THE TEAM' decision to put no name on the back," explains that names were removed from the back to leave only the number, and that the design matches the number-only style of the New York Yankees. It adds: "What we carry on our backs is not personal ambition but our feelings for the fans. It is the expression of a resolve that will never break." The same page quotes club president Imamura: "We want to be the most traditional club and, at the same time, the most innovative club."
Reactions on the Day and the Merchandise - No Names for Games, Names on Replicas
On the same day, November 23, 2022, Sankei Sports reported that the new uniform had no romanized player name above the number, adopting the style of tradition-rich clubs such as the Yankees and the Red Sox. It cited fans on social media saying "it might be hard to tell who is who without names," and another voice asking how many players could be recognized without a name, as in earlier eras.
The merchandise was treated differently from the game uniform. According to the club's official site, the two product lines made to the players' specification have no name on the back, explained as "'no name on the back' expresses the resolve to drive toward victory as a whole team, without leaning toward individuals." The replica uniforms for fans, by contrast, "continue the 'name on the back' style" and are presented as "uniforms bearing the name of the player you admire."
Our View - Rules Never Made Public, and a Fan Inconvenience Never Addressed
On grooming, the club has not publicly shown the text of the rule or how it was adopted, and the grounds for the ban have been spoken of as a precept and a custom. Set side by side, the reported cases show a player shaving even when the chairman allowed otherwise (Ogasawara in 2007), shaving before the introductory press conference (Kajitani), and saying after agreeing to terms that he would shave (Thames): the ban is upheld less by any published rule than by an atmosphere of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." The club has not explained why a custom that leads new players to change their appearance is needed when no rule has been published.
On names, the club's explanation was the manager's words that the team "must not be a team of individuals" and the spirit of "FOR THE TEAM"; it offered no explanation for spectators losing a way to tell players apart. On the day of the announcement, fans were already pointing to that inconvenience. The game uniform and the player-specification merchandise dropped the names, while the replica uniforms for fans kept them.
If the aim is dignity or unity, stating what is forbidden, what is allowed and what the club hopes to gain would be the explanation owed to players and spectators alike. Changes in Yomiuri's popularity and brand are analyzed in Yomiuri Brand Decline.
How to Read This and Its Limits
This article is limited to what could be confirmed in the text of Yomiuri's announcement of November 23, 2022, the club's official Uniform page, the Sankei Sports article of November 23, 2022, and the J-CAST News article of January 13, 2021. None of them gives the text of the grooming rule, the year it was adopted or any penalty, so those are not stated here. Where players changed their appearance, the article follows what was reported about their own intentions or the club's permission, and does not say the club forced them.
The appearance or hairstyle of individual players is not evaluated. Fan comments are limited to those the press carried, with no names or numbers. The uniform without names is treated as a fact from the 2023 season, and whether it continued afterward is not covered. Replica sales and any effect of removing the names are also left out, because no material to confirm them was available.