Japan began to adopt many modern Western ideas during the Meiji restoration of 1868. U.S. professors in Japan may have first organized baseball games with their students in 1872. The game became known...

Japan began to adopt many modern Western ideas during the Meiji restoration of 1868. U.S. professors in Japan may have first organized baseball games with their students in 1872. The game became known as yaky¯u, or “field ball.” The Japanese saw the psychology between the pitcher and batter as similar to the psychology in sumo and martial arts and appreciated the timing and mental and physical strength the game required (Whiting, 2009). Interest grew when the New York Giants and the Chicago White Sox came to Japan in 1910, and later Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and numerous other stars played against Japanese college all-stars. Japan’s first professional team, the Great Tokyo Baseball Club, was formed in December 1934.