Japan’s recent win at the V World Baseball Classic in 2023 has achieved what seemed impossible until a few days ago: boosting the sport’s popularity in a country that has overly loved the discipline for more than a century.
The endless success stories that have been reported in the local media over the past two weeks, which have focused not only on sporting achievements but also on the relationships between the various players on the team, captured the imagination of many who do not normally follow baseball.
Many housewives, grandmothers and others who never bothered to watch a game were moved not only by the win but also by stories like Lars Nootbaar, whose mother and grandparents are Japanese.
The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder was the first player born outside of Japan to defend that team’s jersey, and local media coverage of him was such that he is now a celebrity in this country along with his family.
The friendships formed and developed between Yu Darvish and Shohei Otani, Hiroya Miyagi and Roki Sasaki, Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto, among others, touched the hearts of the general public, who could not help but be proud of their team.
The team’s seven victories in the tournament had a television viewership rating of over 40%, despite the fact that the last two games in Japan were played in the morning hours. The repeat of the finale, which was broadcast with a time delay from 7 a.m., also had an audience rating of 22%.
Hundreds of fans gathered at Narita Airport on the outskirts of Tokyo to greet their heroes upon arrival in the country, and many of them couldn’t hold back their tears of joy.
A recent report estimates that the economic impact of Japan’s victory at the tournament will be close to US$500 million, taking into account home game ticket sales, sales of team merchandise, investments from sponsors and other factors.