Overview
Night games (called 'nighter' in Japanese baseball parlance, a Japanese-English coinage) are played under artificial lighting from evening into night. Nearly all weekday NPB games are night games, typically starting at 6 PM. Japan's first night game was held on August 17, 1948, at Yokohama Gehrigs Stadium between the Giants and Dragons. Night games were instrumental in establishing professional baseball as mass entertainment by enabling working fans to attend. However, they present conditioning challenges: games often end past 9 PM, complicating travel logistics and sleep schedules during road trips. Recent sports science research highlights the impact of post-game sleep quality on performance, prompting some clubs to invest in nutrition and sleep environment improvements. Noise concerns from surrounding residents have also led to curfew restrictions at outdoor venues like Jingu Stadium.