The essay that follows, with a primary focus on professional baseball, is intended as an introductory comparative overview of a game long played in the United States and Japan. I hope it provides readers with some context to learn more about a complex, evolving, and above all, fascinating topic, especially for baseball lovers on both sides of the Pacific.
Baseball, while seriously challenged by the popularity of other sports, has traditionally been considered America’s pastime and was long the most popular sport in the country. The game is an original American sport, but it has taken deep roots in other regions, including Latin America and East Asia. Baseball was introduced to Japan in the late 19th century and became the national sport there during the post-World War II period. however, the game as it is played and organized in both countries is considerably different. the basic rules are mostly the same, but the cultural differences between Americans and Japanese are clearly reflected in how both nations approach their versions of baseball. Although players from both countries have thrived in both the American and Japanese leagues, sometimes the cultural differences are substantial, and some attempts to bridge the gaps have failed. Still, while it is doubtful that the Japanese version has changed the American game, there is some evidence that the American version has made some changes to the Japanese game.
baseball in the united states is essentially a 19th century sport that has made the necessary adaptations to survive in the modern era. The first recognizable teams appeared in the 1850s and 1860s. Professional teams emerged with the formation of the Cincinnati Red Sox in 1869 and the team that became the Boston (now Atlanta) Braves in 1871. The first organization of Professional teams came with the creation of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players in 1871, which would become the National League (NL) in 1876, and the NL remains part of Major League Baseball (MLB) today. by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, baseball had developed a large national following and became the most popular sport in the country. Horace Wilson, an American English teacher at Kaisei Academy in Tokyo, first introduced baseball to Japan in 1872, and other American teachers and missionaries popularized the game throughout Japan in the 1870s and 1880s. Japanese grew slowly and led to the establishment of Japan’s first organized baseball team, the Shimbashi Athletic Club, in 1878. ; the athletic club attracted wide coverage in the Japanese press and contributed greatly to the popularity of baseball as a school sport. The growing popularity of baseball led to the development of high school, college, and university teams throughout Japan in the early 20th century. Major rivalries developed at the high school and college levels, highlighted by the intense battles between Keio University and Waseda University, which began in 1903 as an annual competition between the two schools and continues to this day . Photographs from 1903 onwards show large stadiums filled with people as Waseda, Keio, and the Imperial Universities battled it out for the annual championship. high school tournaments also gained popularity in the early 20th century and remain immensely popular today. Despite their cultural differences, the growing popularity of baseball in Japan encouraged Japanese college teams and other baseball clubs, led by a team from Waseda University in 1905, to travel to the United States in the early 20th century to take a closer look at American baseball and play exhibition. matches against American teams. In exchange, American professional teams made annual trips to Japan between 1908 and 1935 after the World Series to play Japanese teams. Japanese baseball teams rarely beat their American counterparts, but their improvement was steady.
professional baseball in japan started slowly in the 1920s, and the first professional team, the great tokyo japanese baseball club, was formed in 1934 by a prominent japanese yomiuri newspaper
shimbun editor, shōriki matsutarō. The club’s success against an American professional all-star team that included Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, and Charlie Gehringer spurred the development of Japan’s first professional baseball league in 1936, the Japanese Baseball League (Nihon Yakyū Renmei). . The league briefly disbanded in 1944 due to the Allied bombing of Japan, but resumed play during the Allied occupation after the war. In 1950, the league would become Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB; Nippon Yakyū Kikō) and was large enough to split into two leagues: the Central League and the Pacific League. NPB still exists today, and the best-known teams in the Central League are the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants and the Osaka-based Hanshin Tigers. The most famous team in the Pacific League is the Seibu Lions from the Tokyo region.
It was only in the 1960s that Japan had enough players to seriously compete against America’s best. American teams again began visiting Japan as early as 1949 with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) minor leagues, soon followed by visits from MLB teams, including the Brooklyn Dodgers, who played in exhibition games against Japanese teams. Japanese baseball rules allowed each Japanese team to sign a maximum of two foreign players (later increased to four). The result has been a steady stream of American players coming to Japan to play since the early 1950s.
Americans continue to play on Japanese teams today, although now a growing number come from other Asian countries such as Taiwan and South Korea. No Japanese player attempted to join Major League Baseball until 1964, when a young pitcher, Masanori (“Mashi”) Murakami, made a sensational debut for the San Francisco Giants. by 2015, more than fifty Japanese players had played in the major leagues.
American and Japanese baseball relationships
Japanese-American baseball historian Robert K. Fitts identifies three players who played key roles in developing a strong baseball relationship between the United States and Japan: Babe Ruth (1895-1948), Wally Yonamine (1925-2011), and Masanori Murakami (b. 1944).
ruth was past her prime in 1934 when shōriki matsutarō announced she wanted to sponsor an all-star tour of America in November. The publisher wanted to boost his newspaper’s flagging circulation with the publicity such a tour with Ruth, who was as famous in Japan as he was in the United States, could bring. Prominent citizens in both countries, such as U.S. Ambassador Joseph Grow and Japanese Prime Minister Reijirō Wakatsuki, concerned about already strained relations between their governments, had hoped that a goodwill visit by Ruth and other star players would be a critical exercise in diplomacy. of soft power that would ease tensions.
In her 2012 book Banzai Babe Ruth, Fitts describes the enormously warm reception Americans received when they arrived in Tokyo. More than half a million Japanese watched the Americans as they drove in an open-top motorcade from Tokyo Station to the Imperial Hotel where they were staying. all the Japanese shouted, “banzai [long live] babe ruth!” and treated him almost like a god. the American players complied, playing very well and showing the utmost courtesy to their hosts and the
Japanese ball players. Ruth was a noted cultural diplomat, willing to embrace the Japanese players, people, food and drink. his towering home runs brought warm applause from the spectators. The Japanese were moved when Ruth made many warm comments and gestures about the host nation, and the success of several Japanese players like pitcher Eiji Sawamura (1917-1944) sparked a wave of national pride. The success of the 1934 tour did much to further popularize baseball in Japan.
Manager Connie Mack (1862-1956) later called the four-week tour, which included eighteen games in twelve cities, one of the largest peace measures in the nations history. however, the goodwill eventually faded. Fitts sarcastically points out that several of the Japanese players, such as Sawamura, served in the Japanese Army in World War II and developed strong anti-American sentiments. Sawamura’s throwing arm came in handy when he threw grenades at US troops before a US submarine sank his transport ship, with no survivors.
general douglas macarthur ordered the reintroduction of the game at the beginning of the occupation he led, starting in 1945. macarthur pointed out that baseball had been very popular before the war and that playing ball could divert attention from the Japanese from the misery of living in a land devastated by war.
A key figure in the revival of Japanese baseball was the Hawaiian-born Japanese-American athlete Wallace “Wally” Yonamine. Fitts in his 2008 biography of Yonamine credits this magnificent athlete for playing a major role in bringing about reconciliation between the United States and Japan in the immediate post-war period. yonamine was a natural athlete. Yonamine played one season for the San Francisco 49ers in 1947, becoming the first Japanese-American to play in the National Football League (NFL). He also became one of the first Americans to make it big playing baseball in Japan. His natural ability and his starring role with Japan’s preeminent baseball franchise, the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants from 1951 to 1960, helped create both sporting and cultural ties between the United States and Japan that remain to this day of today.
yonamine was also a hero in other ways. He arrived in Japan at the end of the American occupation, when some Japanese still harbored anger toward the United States. Feelings were especially strong against Nisei like Yonamine, a second-generation ethnic Japanese born in the United States. Even in 1950, five years after Japan’s surrender, living conditions in Tokyo were still harsh by American standards. high quality food was difficult to obtain and fuel for heating was scarce. some Japanese viewed the Nisei as traitors for not joining their motherland during the war. furthermore, many of the stars of the giants were war veterans. Would you accept an American as a teammate?
Fans and fellow players showered Yonamine with a cascade of insults and occasional rocks and trash, but like Jackie Robinson in the United States, she endured these attacks with a calm and positive demeanor. He played hardball and introduced a hasty and brazen form of baserunning common in the US but unknown in Japan. Aggressive moves like sliding toward a second baseman to break up a double play were routine in the United States, but not in Japan. yonamine displayed raw talent that strengthened and brought quick success to the giants.
yonamine’s positive attitude and great talent eventually endeared him to players and fans alike. his aggressive style was adopted by more and more Japanese players, whose general skills improved. he became a very popular goodwill ambassador and a clear bridge between the two former adversary nations. He soon invited other American players to play on Japanese teams.
while american players prospered in japan in the 1950s and early 1960s, no japanese citizen played in mlb until 1964, when a young pitcher for the nankai hawks, mashi murakami, made a successful debut as a late-season roster addition for the san francisco giants. That year, Mashi was only supposed to play in the American minor leagues, but the San Francisco Giants were so impressed with Mashi that they called him up for the final weeks of the season.
Mashi’s historic moment came on September 1, 1964, against the then lowly New York Mets. he struck out two and completed a complete inning of relief. Mashi’s impressive debut caught the attention of the American and Japanese press because it was the first time a native Japanese player had played in the major leagues and, to top it off, he had been successful. Mashi continued his hot streak and appeared in relief eight more times before he finished the season in early October. he was a hot commodity with a solid record for strikeouts from opposing players.
Mashi’s success created an instant demand for his services in 1965 from both the San Francisco Giants and the Nankai Hawks. Every team claimed Mashi, and although he appeared in spring training with Nankai, by the start of the 1965 season, Mashi was back in San Francisco. His entire season in the majors was again successful: Mashi appeared in forty-five games, had a respectable 3.75 era, and was credited with four wins and only one loss. The Giants were so impressed with their star Japanese pitcher that they wanted him back in 1966, but his parents’ pleas for him to come home and Mashi’s sense of responsibility to the Nankai Falcons convinced him to return to Japanese baseball for good.
Although Mashi was good for a short time, thirty more years would pass before the first Japanese superstar, pitcher Hideo Nomo (b. 1968), made his debut in 1995 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nomo would become a star, winning the National League Rookie of the Year award, leading the league in strikeouts in his debut season, and going on to have a successful thirteen-season MLB career with various teams. your
Success would help bring future Japanese stars to MLB, including Suzuki Ichirō, who made his debut in 2001 with the Seattle Mariners. ichirō, still an active major league player in the us. USA, holds both MLB records for hits in a single season with 262 and the longest consecutive streak of 200-hit seasons with ten.
cultural differences between baseball in japan and the united states?
One of the most well-known and interesting treatments of the cultural differences between the way baseball is played in the United States and in Japan is Robert Whiting’s 1989 book You Gotta Have It. According to Whiting, despite the virtually identical rules, American players who come to Japan quickly notice big differences in the way the game is played and organized in Japan. The emphasis in the US is on the role of the individual, but that is not so much the case in Japan, where the focus is on group strength and harmony. The same rules apply for the worker on the assembly line as for the baseball player. Whiting insists that the key difference is wa: team spirit or unity. There is much more sense of playing for the team and much less emphasis on individual success in Japan than in the United States. Whiting has compared the spirit of the typical Japanese player to that of the samurai in earlier periods of the nation’s history. Whiting’s strong claims regarding cultural differences have not gone unanswered and are the subject of some controversy. Yale University professor James Kelly, who has published extensively on Japanese baseball, acknowledges
whiting’s extensive knowledge of the game. agrees that some of professional baseball in japan fits the samurai stereotype, “not quite, not convincingly, not just, but enough to feed press factories and headquarters and television analysts ”. in fact, he says, this “twist” is part of the game. our job is “not to dismiss this comment as wrong (although much of it clearly is)”, but to ask about who puts forward these ideas, who believes them and why they are attractive: “myths are essential to reality. . . .” Japanese baseball “is not a window into a homogeneous and unchanging national character, but it is a fascinating sight to see how these national debates and concerns play out, just like in the United States.”1
Despite the controversies, famous Japanese baseball stars receive salaries much lower than in the United States and are said to be valued for their contributions to their teams rather than their individual exploits. salaries in japan for npb players in 2014 ranged from 44,000 usd to 6 million usd, while the range in the united states for mlb players in the same year was from 500,000 usd to $26 million2
Most Japanese professional teams are owned by large corporations for public relations purposes. the team names reflect their owners rather than the cities the teams call home. For example, the Tokyo-based Yomiuri giants are owned by the Japanese media conglomerate, the Yomiuri Group. There’s another team in downtown Tokyo, the Yakult Swallows, who are owned by the Yakult Hansha Co. dairy probiotic drink company. limited. Hiroshima Tōyō Tent is owned by Tōyō Kōgyō Co. Ltd., the owners of Mazda. In a rather unique case, the Japanese electronics and entertainment software company Nintendo similarly majority owned the Seattle Mariners of the MLB between 1992 and 2016.
When Americans come to Japan to play, they are often surprised by the amount of time they are expected to spend in the stadium for what seems like endless practice sessions that could last every day for ten hours or more. . Players are expected to push themselves to the limit even when they have a day off and have to practice. even injured American players are told to take the field with the team. Not doing so, some say, would destroy the quintessence of the team. Whiting feels that while Americans “play” ball, the Japanese actually “work” at it, and suggests that a key difference between American and Japanese baseball is the idea of individual initiative. while the American players certainly exhibit some team spirit, they also play for their own benefit. If they get a high average, win a lot of games by pitching, or hit a lot of home runs, they can earn much higher salaries than is possible in Japan. many American players are said to lack team loyalty and move to new teams that offer better pay and playing conditions. Japanese players at home show greater team loyalty by playing with the same team most of the time. there are trades and the like, but there is much less emphasis on players changing teams.
The lure of American salaries has bucked this trend as many stars leave or consider leaving their Japanese squad for the higher salaries and fame possible in MLB. npb teams have countered this by establishing a posting system between their league and mlb, where mlb teams must pay a fee to a japanese player’s team in addition to negotiating the player’s contract for their team after that the npb team has made that player available to the mlb. . this allows npb teams to receive compensation for players who are going to play in mlb.
However, Kelly and others have rightly pointed out that in a game where individual stats can make or break a player, there is always a tension between personal and team goals. Also, as is the case in the United States, different professional organizations have contrasting expectations and organizational styles that reflect the personalities of their owners.3
Despite differences that preclude sweeping generalizations, Japanese teams are more highly regulated than their American counterparts. many Japanese players view their team as family and are expected to show the utmost respect and loyalty to their team. the team manager has absolute authority, and it is a great sin for any player to disobey or criticize the manager. players who show a lack of wa, even if they are winning a lot of games with home runs or good pitches, can be benched or even dropped from the team.
Although Whiting’s book was written in 1989, he feels little has changed today. in 2012, she wrote:
Besuboru, or “yakyū” (field ball), as it’s also called, is Japan’s national sport, but it’s not the game Americans know and love. Take a trip to a Japanese baseball stadium like the Tokyo Dome, home of the Yomiuri Giants, and an entirely different baseball culture will be revealed. It’s not just sake and squid and brewers in shorts carrying kegs of draft beer. it is the values of group harmony and discipline that reflect society at large. besuboru’s strategy focuses on tactics like the sacrifice bunt, something most American coaches avoid. there’s a distinct lack of the hard slides and throwbacks typical of major league baseball: a pitcher who accidentally hits a batter will politely tip his cap apologetically.
Bobby Valentine’s Difficult Management Experience in Japan: A Clash of Cultures
bobby valentine was a successful major league baseball coach in the 1990s. he earned respect for his ability to turn mediocre teams into pennant contenders. His success in the United States persuaded the Japanese Chiba Lotte Marines baseball team to hire him to manage the team in 1995. Valentine’s experiences in Japan clearly illustrate several key cultural differences between American and Japanese baseball cultures.5
The Marines had been perennial underdogs for many years, but management hoped Valentine could transform them into championship contenders. Unfortunately, arriving in 1995, Valentine almost immediately clashed with a coaching staff determined to maintain the rigorous training program that dated back to the 19th century, when baseball was first introduced to Japan. It was a system that featured dawn-to-dusk spring training camps that were three to four times longer than in the United States. coaches focused on so-called “guts” drills, in which players were forced to field balls to exhaustion and sometimes involved corporal punishment for slackers.
valentin introduced his own hybrid approach brought from his experience in the united states. During spring training, she did short, quick practices limited to three hours a day, not nine, like at other camps. Valentine said the long drills during spring training exhausted the players so much that his game suffered when the season began in April. during the season, he reduced the time spent in pregame workouts to conserve players’ energy for games. he reduced the number and length of pregame meetings and discouraged the use of the sacrifice bunt, a long-favorite tactic of most Japanese coaches, believing that a sacrifice was just a loss of out.
Although the Marines’ overall game improved markedly in 1995, the standoff between Valentine and his coaches grew in intensity. When the season ended, the coaches complained to management that Valentine did not make enough of an effort to understand the psychological value of the traditional approach to Japanese baseball. management sided with the coaches and fired valentine.
Although Valentine returned to Japan for another successful stint as manager of the Marines from 2004 to 2009, including winning the Japan Series in 2005, the traditionalist approach to management still seems to dominate Japanese baseball today. In 2009, Marine team management felt that Valentine was not honoring his expensive contract, and the team was losing money after making substantial improvements to its stadium, including large HD video screens. A Japanese critic claimed that Valentine’s easygoing American approach and lack of discipline had backfired and was destroying team harmony (or wa).
Japanese professional leagues also tried a novel experiment with foreign referees in 1997, when they hired a young but experienced American referee, Mike Dimuro, to work in Japan. Dimuro immediately ran into trouble in Japan because his American interpretation of the rules of baseball often differed from those employed in Japan. His interpretation of the strike zone and what constituted a balk angered the Japanese players and management, and soon led to Dimuro’s firing.
the future of baseball in japan and the united states
baseball will remain a very popular sport in japan and the united states for a long time, but academics, sportswriters and most importantly sports fans know whether or not they admit that the sport is no longer it is “the national pastime”. in either nation. Japan is experiencing a soccer boom, and many Japanese college students seem to prefer J1 league soccer to baseball. In general, the Japanese still consider baseball the most popular sport, but the popularity of soccer is growing rapidly. According to a survey conducted in 2005, 52 percent of respondents rated professional baseball as the most popular sport in Japan, and only 23 percent of respondents chose soccer. the same poll in 2013 showed 48 percent in favor of baseball and 36 percent in favor of soccer. Today, soccer has replaced baseball as the favorite sport among high school students in Japan according to surveys conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.6 The overall popularity of Japanese baseball is further diminished by the fact that many leading Japanese baseball stars have gone to the “greener pastures” of Major League Baseball.
Football today is more popular than baseball among the American public. It’s clear that the National Football League (NFL) dominates fan interest in the United States. For example, the 2014 AFC Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Indianapolis Colts was watched by more people (27.6 million) than the World Cup Final (26.6 million). , the nba finals (15.6 million), the world series (13.8 million). million), and just about every other televised sporting event from 2014.7 In 2016, an estimated 111.9 million viewers tuned in to the 2016 Super Bowl 50 game, while only 14.7 million watched any part of the World Series. 2015. To make matters worse for Major League Baseball, the average age of Americans watching the World Series is approaching fifty-five, while the average age for the NFL Super Bowl is well under the forty-five.8
The situation is somewhat better in Japan. Baseball remains the most popular team sport in Japan, with high school, college, and professional games drawing crowds and dominating the media during the spring and summer months. however, as is the case in the united states, other sports such as professional soccer are attracting a growing number of spectators and younger fans.
However, there is evidence that the “great old game” will continue to thrive in both Japan and the United States. The recent surge of interest in baseball in South Korea, Taiwan, and even China has sparked increased interest in Japan, especially when national teams meet in tournaments. In the United States, professional baseball, despite its secondary status compared to professional football, continues to be popular, and there is encouraging evidence that minor league baseball is growing for the first time in many years in downtown neighborhoods. from the city. the game is here to stay in both nations.
Additional Suggested Resources Fitts, Robert K. wally yonamine: the man who changed Japanese baseball. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. —. banzai babe ruth: baseball, espionage, and murder during the 1934 tour of japan. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012. —. mashi: the unfulfilled dreams of masanori murakami, the first japanese major league player. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Hayford, Charles W. “samurai baseball vs baseball in japan”. Asia Pacific Magazine: Japan Focus 5, Issue 4, No. 0 (2007): 1-10. available at http://tinyurl.com/hsvfz42. whiting, robert. the chrysanthemum and the bat: samurai-style baseball. new york: avon books, 1983.
notes 1. see charles w. hayford, “samurai baseball vs. baseball in japan”, the asia pacific journal: japan focus 5, number 4, no. 0 (2007): 1-10. available at http://tinyurl.com/hsvfz42. 2. player salary statistics are used from npb tracker (www.npbtracker.com) and yakyubaka (www.yakyubaka.com) for npb, while mlb data comes from spotrac (www.spotrac.com) and statista (http://tinyurl.com/hexvyft). 3. Professor James Kelly, Conversation with Lucien Ellington, June 24, 2016. 4. Robert Whiting, “Diamond Diplomacy,” The Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2012. 5. Much of the material in this section is derived from the work by robert whiting article “valentine’s philosophy brought glory, money to marines”, the japan times, 24 january 2010. 6. see “explore japan: sports”, kids web japan, accessed 8 september 2010 2016, http://tinyurl.com/zxhng5s. 7. Marissa Payne, “The NFL Dominated Sports Fan TV in 2014,” The Washington Post, February 11, 2015. 8. Jonathan Mahler, “Bad News for Baseball: World Series Viewers Are Turning getting bigger,” deadspin, last modified October 23 February 2013, http://tinyurl.com/hh4wzk7.
daniel a. Métraux, a professor of Asian studies, has been teaching in his field for forty years, thirty-three at Mary Baldwin College. his specialty is modern japan and korea, but he teaches a wide range of asian studies courses. métraux is the author of fourteen books and numerous book chapters and articles. He served as editor of the Southeast Asian Studies Journal and as president of the Southeast Chapter of the Association for Asian Studies. He is editor of the Virginia Review of Asian Studies. A two-time Fulbright Scholar, he has lived, taught, and studied in Japan for more than five years. He received his Ph.D. in East Asian Studies from Columbia University. Métraux has also taught at Doshisha Women’s College in Japan and was a Visiting Scholar at the Australian National University in 2002.
further reading:
Japanese Baseball Collectibles
just like in the united states, collecting baseball memorabilia became a popular pastime for the japanese as the sport grew in japan. The first baseball card made in Japan appeared in 1897 as a circular cardboard disk for menko, a card game featuring images from Japanese popular culture where players try to flip a flat card with their own card. the card depicted a generic baseball player and is the only known Japanese baseball collectible dating from the 19th century.
In the early 1900s, Japanese baseball clubs used to produce postcards of their team as advertising, selling packs of cards featuring posing players, action game shots, and full team images. by the 1920s, the menko was booming again after a lapse in popularity and new card shapes were developed, including rectangles similar to typical American baseball cards and cards in the shape of their theme, such as an animal or a popular baseball player (for example, example, a giraffe card is shaped like a giraffe). Other popular baseball collectibles that emerged in the 1920s were bromides, mass-distributed photographs ranging from small to large sizes of popular singers, actors, and athletes; and furoku, large magazine inserts that are up to a foot long.
In the 1950s, Japanese gum and candy stores, following an American trend, began producing and packaging Japanese professional baseball player cards with their products. Baseball cards became the most popular baseball souvenirs in Japan, especially when the popularity of menko waned. While the MLB granted rights to produce baseball cards to two of the leading gum companies in the United States, Bowman Gum and Topps, a wide variety of Japanese candy manufacturers produced their own cards. dagashiya, cheap Japanese candy stores, popularly distributed low quality baseball collectibles.
Japanese company Kabaya Leaf produced the first large set of baseball cards in Japan in 1967, with 105 players, and it was only produced for one year. In 1973, the Calbee Food Company produced its first modern set of ninety-one baseball cards. the company includes a baseball card on every package of potato chips it produces, a trend that continues today. Calbee’s trading card sets have ranged in size from 1,436 in 1975-1976 to 144 trading cards in 1993, and remain the most widely collected baseball trading cards in Japan today.
matthew tormey and jeffrey melnik
Sources: Rob Fitts, “Vintage Japanese Baseball Cards,” Rob Fitts Baseball History, accessed July 11, 2016, http://tinyurl.com/zm6tkz2. John Gall and Gary Engel, Sayonara Home Run!: The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2006). Dennis King, “A History of Japanese Baseball Cards,” Japanese Baseball Cards Quarterly Magazine (1991).
daniel a. Métraux, a professor of Asian studies, has been teaching in his field for forty years, thirty-three at Mary Baldwin College. his specialty is modern japan and korea, but he teaches a wide range of asian studies courses. métraux is the author of fourteen books and numerous book chapters and articles. He served as editor of the Southeast Asian Studies Journal and as president of the Southeast Chapter of the Association for Asian Studies. He is editor of the Virginia Review of Asian Studies. A two-time Fulbright Scholar, he has lived, taught, and studied in Japan for more than five years. He received his Ph.D. in East Asian Studies from Columbia University. Métraux has also taught at Doshisha Women’s College in Japan and was a Visiting Scholar at the Australian National University in 2002