Matsutaro Shoriki and the Vision for Professional Baseball
Japanese professional baseball began with the vision of Matsutaro Shoriki, president of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. In 1934, Shoriki invited an MLB All-Star team to Japan, arranging exhibition games against an All-Japan team. The visit of major leaguers including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig ignited baseball fever across Japan and built momentum for establishing professional baseball. In December of that year, Shoriki founded the Great Japan Tokyo Baseball Club (later the Yomiuri Giants), creating Japan's first professional baseball team. Shoriki's vision extended beyond mere sports entertainment, representing a grand media strategy that linked newspaper sales promotion with the creation of national entertainment.
The Launch of the Professional Baseball League and Early Struggles
In February 1936, the Japanese Professional Baseball League was established with seven teams, and official games began. However, early professional baseball faced strong opposition from the amateur baseball world. At a time when university and corporate baseball were mainstream, professional baseball was often looked down upon as playing baseball for money. Attendance struggled, and team finances remained difficult. Nevertheless, the performances of star players like Eiji Sawamura and Victor Starffin drove popularity, and professional baseball gradually established its position as a national sport. In 1937, a spring-autumn two-season system was introduced, establishing the foundation for league operations.
Professional Baseball During Wartime
As the Second Sino-Japanese War intensified, professional baseball came under strong influence from militarism. In 1940, English team names were banned, forcing all teams to adopt Japanese names. Player conscription became frequent, with many players including Eiji Sawamura sent to the front lines. Sawamura was killed in action in 1944, dealing a significant loss to professional baseball. The 1944 season was barely completed, and in 1945, deteriorating war conditions made it impossible to hold official games. The efforts of those who kept the flame of professional baseball alive during wartime laid the crucial foundation that made postwar revival possible.
Books on wartime baseball are also helpful
Postwar Revival and a New Beginning
In November 1945, just three months after the war's end, an East-West exhibition game was held, marking professional baseball's first step toward revival. The pennant race resumed in 1946, and professional baseball's popularity surged rapidly among a nation starved for entertainment. GHQ supported sports promotion as part of its democratization policy, providing a tailwind for professional baseball's development. The number of teams grew, and by 1949, discussions about transitioning to a two-league system had begun. Professional baseball during the postwar recovery period served as a source of hope and vitality for the people, making a spiritual contribution to the rebuilding of Japanese society.
The Transition to a Two-League System and Baseball Reorganization
In 1949, conflicts between established teams centered around Yomiuri and new entrant groups including the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper became overt, making maintenance of a single-league system untenable. Applications from expansion teams such as the Mainichi Orions and Nishitetsu Clippers followed in succession, and reconciling interests with existing teams proved difficult. Ultimately in 1950, a new structure was launched splitting into the Central League and Pacific League. The combined 15-team setup of 8 Central League and 7 Pacific League teams represented more than a doubling from the prewar 7-team era, demonstrating that professional baseball had established itself as a nationwide industry. This two-league system also became the foundation for the subsequent creation of the Japan Series.
The First Commissioner and Governance Reform
With the launch of the two-league system, professional baseball's governance structure was also overhauled. In 1951, former Home Ministry bureaucrat Seita Fukui became the first commissioner, promoting arbitration of disputes between leagues and standardization of player contracts. The commissioner system was modeled after MLB, tasked with having a third party adjudicate conflicts of interest between teams. During his tenure, Fukui advanced the development of unified contracts and codification of the reserve system, providing a legal framework for player-team relationships. An organizational structure that would become the predecessor to Nippon Professional Baseball was also built, enabling systematic management of game scheduling and official records. The institutional foundation established during this period became the backbone of professional baseball operations for decades to come.
The Legacy of the Founding Era
The founding era from 1934 to 1950 was the decisive period that shaped the framework of Japanese professional baseball. The newspaper-led team ownership structure laid down by Matsutaro Shoriki took root as the parent company system, creating a unique model that stabilized team survival despite making independent profitability difficult. The memory of players who perished on the battlefield during wartime was reflected in the postwar creation of the Sawamura Award and the Baseball Hall of Fame, establishing a culture of recording and honoring achievements. The turbulent experience of the two-league split imprinted on the baseball world the necessity of interest-reconciliation mechanisms and fairness-guaranteeing systems such as the draft, becoming the starting point for subsequent reform debates. The uniqueness of Japanese professional baseball cannot be discussed without its founding era.