Overview
Free agency (FA) is the system that lets a player who meets certain conditions leave his club and negotiate a contract with other teams. It is generally dated to the 1993 offseason, and it changed how movement worked in a game where clubs had held the reserve rights. NPB separates domestic from international free agency. In NPB's own wording, domestic FA carries the right to sign a player contract with any club in the NPB organization, while international FA carries the right to sign with any club at home or abroad, including clubs belonging to foreign professional baseball organizations. Reading international FA as a ticket out of Japan therefore misses the point: a player who exercises it may still sign with an NPB club. Eligibility is counted in seasons rather than years. A season in which the player was on the active roster for at least 145 days during the league's championship season counts as one, and domestic FA requires eight such seasons, or seven for college and corporate league players drafted in 2007 or later. International FA requires nine, unless the player had already exercised domestic FA. A player who has exercised the right once and then signed with an NPB club becomes eligible again after four more seasons.
Counting qualifying seasons and declaring free agency
The 145-day figure is also a ceiling for a single season. A year with more than 145 days on the roster still counts as 145, and seasons short of 145 days have their registered days added together, each 145-day total counting as one season. Registered days can also be supplemented. According to the players association, the injury exemption applies to a player who cleared 145 days the previous year and was removed from the active roster because of an injury sustained on the field between February 1 and November 30; the days from his removal until he appears in a farm league official game are added, up to 60 days. A separate exemption for pitchers adds days for a starter registered within seven days of Opening Day, or removed and re-registered around the All-Star break. Holding the right is not the same as using it. A player must declare, within seven days excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays counted from the day after the Japan Series ends, whether he will exercise it. He is announced as a declared free agent on the day after that window closes, and from the day after the announcement he may negotiate a contract for the following season with any club, including his former one. That last point is why a declared free agent can end up re-signing with the team he was leaving.
Compensation and the debate around the system
Compensation arises when a player exercises FA rights and moves to another NPB club: the acquiring club pays the former club in money, or in money plus a player. According to the players association, which is a party to the agreement, whether compensation is owed and how much depends on the player's salary rank at his former club. The ranking covers Japanese players only; among players on equal salaries the one with more days on the active roster is placed higher, and age breaks any remaining tie. Ranks one through three are A, four through ten are B, and eleventh and below are C. Where no player is included in the compensation, an A-rank player costs 80 percent of his salary and a B-rank player 60 percent, while a C-rank player carries no compensation at all. There is also a limit on numbers: a club may sign only two free agents, though C-rank players fall outside that limit. When a player exercises international FA rights and moves to a club outside NPB, there is neither compensation nor any limit on numbers. The players association calls for abolishing this compensation payment and easing the qualifying conditions, noting that reaching domestic FA for the first time takes an average of more than eleven years from entry, at an average age above 32, and asking that eligibility be granted once seven years of contracts have passed. Its material also points out that movement has been lively among C-rank players, for whom no compensation is due, and it sets out the clubs' explanations of the present arrangement in order to rebut them. The compensation rates and the limit on numbers cited here come from the players association, which labels its explanation of the system as current to September 2010.