Tsuneo Watanabe and the Single-League Plan
Tsuneo Watanabe, then owner of the Yomiuri Giants, had been openly advocating for a transition to a single-league system well before the 2004 restructuring crisis. Watanabe repeatedly stated that 'Pacific League teams cannot sustain their operations. A single league with 10 teams is the rational solution,' dismissing calls to maintain the two-league system. Behind this vision lay the Yomiuri Group's business calculation to maximize broadcasting rights revenue from Giants games. Under the two-league system, the Giants could not appear in Pacific League games, making a single league where the Giants would be involved in every matchup more advantageous for the broadcasting business. Watanabe's statements sent shockwaves through the baseball world, provoking strong opposition from Pacific League team officials and fans. Yet Watanabe refused to heed the criticism, leveraging his influence as president and chairman of the Yomiuri Shimbun to lobby other team owners behind the scenes. The single-league plan was not merely a personal opinion but an organizational initiative closely tied to the Yomiuri Group's business strategy.
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Yomiuri's Stance on the Kintetsu-Orix Merger
When the proposed merger between the Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave surfaced in June 2004, Tsuneo Watanabe actively endorsed it as a stepping stone toward realizing the single-league system. While it was true that Kintetsu Railway, the parent company of the Buffaloes, was seeking to exit baseball operations, alternatives to the merger, such as transferring ownership to a new buyer or transitioning to community-based management, were not adequately explored. Watanabe worked behind the scenes to make the merger a fait accompli, even urging other team owners to pursue 'one more merger.' This 'one more' was believed to refer to a merger between the Daiei Hawks and Lotte Marines, or the Seibu Lions and another team, with a scenario envisioned to reduce the Pacific League to three teams and transition to a single league. While Yomiuri publicly stated it 'respected each team's management decisions,' in practice it served as the standard-bearer for the merger push. Yomiuri also maintained a dismissive attitude toward Kintetsu fans' campaigns and petitions to preserve the team.
Conflict with the Players' Union and Yomiuri's Responsibility
When the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association raised its voice against the mergers and team reductions, Yomiuri adopted the most hardline stance among team owners. Tsuneo Watanabe reportedly said of union chairman Atsuya Furuta, 'They're just players,' a remark widely reported as symbolic of the disregard for players' rights as workers. Yomiuri maintained an unyielding position in collective bargaining with the players' union, refusing to accept any demands for new team entries or reversal of the merger plans. At the owners' meetings that served as the management side's negotiating forum, Watanabe wielded strong influence, deterring other owners from making concessions to the union. The players' union was driven to resort to the ultimate measure of a strike partly because of the refusal to engage in dialogue by the management side, led by Yomiuri. Watanabe's hardline approach ultimately provoked a public backlash, with national sympathy rallying behind the players' union during the strike. Yomiuri's conduct has been recorded in professional baseball history as an instance of team owners attempting to treat the baseball world as their private domain while ignoring the voices of players and fans.
Books on the 2004 baseball restructuring are also helpful references
Yomiuri's Changes After the Restructuring
The 2004 strike and Rakuten's entry as a new franchise derailed Tsuneo Watanabe's single-league plan. Watanabe himself resigned from his position as team owner, taking responsibility for the turmoil, and Yomiuri's absolute influence over the baseball world receded. However, questions remain about whether Yomiuri's fundamental approach truly changed. Even after his resignation, Watanabe reportedly continued to wield influence over the baseball world as the most powerful figure in the Yomiuri Group, including involvement in the appointment of his successor as owner. After the restructuring, structural reforms in NPB progressed, including the introduction of interleague play and draft system reforms, but these were not initiatives led by Yomiuri. Rather, they were largely achieved by overcoming Yomiuri's resistance. The 2004 crisis exposed a governance vulnerability in NPB where a single team's owner could influence the fate of the entire league. The role Yomiuri played in the restructuring crisis highlighted structural issues of power concentration and the lack of democratic decision-making in professional baseball. Whether this lesson will be fully applied to future league governance remains a matter requiring continued examination.