How Japan Took Over Baseball 

Every like this comment gets, I’ll do one push-up

The gutsy, traditional Japanese baseball culture showcased in this video is changing. The high school that won last year's Koshien Championship adopts the principle of "enjoying baseball" and allows freedom in hairstyles as well.

I'm just some random British bloke who has never watched baseball in my life but this video is sensational

よく集めたなってくらい特殊なシーンばかり取り上げられてて草

An hour long BDE video? What did we do to deserve this blessing??

As someone who has played in the Japanese little league for a few years I can attest that these Japanese little league teams are insane. My team didn't personally practice more than a few hours a week, and it showed. Against the Japanese teams, our team was absolutely horrible and once got a game called in the 3 inning because we were losing 27 to 3, even though most of our players were at least a few years older than most of the other team. They just had an ungodly ability to make hard contact, and their pitching was leaps and bounds above anything I had seen before. Japanese little league is no joke.

As someone coming from Japan who's followed Japanese baseball since 90's, I can testify that this video touches on every single significant moment/topic of the last 3 decades and on point with its analysis of pros and cons of Japanese baseball. Hats off to incredible research. Amazing work!

I had a small skinny Japanese kid on my little league team who just moved to America. That was many years ago, but he’s one of my only teammates I remembered. He threw like a rocket, perfectly accurate throws from the outfield or from 3rd to 1st, like 70 mph when the rest of us probably only threw 40 mph

I was a baseball player when I was growing up in 70’s. Coach pushed us so hard in the middle of summer practicing WITHOUT water, I ended up having kidney stone! The big scar on my left side is my reminder that hard practice without scientific evidence is nothing but stupidity ! I still love Japanese baseball. But I think I like it better with modern scientific Japanese baseball. Hail to Ohtani !

As an American who spent 3 years growing up in Nagoya Japan. Watching the Nagoya Dragon baseball team is something I will never forget. Made it onto the jumbo-tron 3 times in a game and the crowd was WILD yet respectful. Drums, chants, cheers. Great life experience.

If you watched/read Ace of Diamond, you cried watching this. The amount of heart these kids have brings me to tears.

I am from germany and don't even comprehend what is going on in baseball but still watched this 1hr video. Goes to show how good your vids are.

I'm not that into baseball, but this channel is one of the best things in sports journalism today.

A factual error regarding Ohtani: he wanted to come to the MLB as soon as he graduated from high school, but the team who drafted him, Nippon Ham Fighters, persuaded him not to be too hasty. They drew up a "business plan" which would better prepare Ohtani as a pro, both as a hitter and pitcher, so he would be ready for MLB a few years later. They wanted him to succeed first in the NPB, and then send him off.

Full discretion, I'm a knuckle dragger that only watches UFC, but holy moly this was an amazing documentary and really gave me a whole new appreciation for Japan and baseball. Thank you so much for the hard work in this documentary and showing me a whole new world I didn't even know existed! Time to go train harder!

Can we all take a minute to acknowledge the perfectly executed narration, background music, & editing? It's not often all three come together so flawlessly. We might as well appreciate the research required to make an hour long video, as well as the unbelievable amount of time spent just to go through and select all the individual clips. Great work my friend, truly impressive.

Nomo should be in the hall of fame, simply for his impact on the baseball world. You can't tell the story of baseball without Nomo.

Jimmy Dugan: "There's no CRYING in baseball!!!" Japanese Baseball manager: "There IS crying in baseball!!!"

I'm not really a baseball fan, but I happened to be in Japan for about 6 weeks which also included the WBC title. I had no idea baseball was THAT big of a deal in Japan. It was everywhere, and pretty cool to see. Even as an American myself I found myself rooting for the Japan team just because of all the devotion they had over there for it (also because like I said, I don't watch baseball so I had no particular loyalty to the US team). Anyways really good video, I don't know how it ended up in my feed but I was not expecting to actually be entertained enough to watch it all. Incredibly interesting.

my friend ron passed away last year and i wish he was still here to sit down and enjoy this absolutely monster of a video from you he would have loved that you made an hour long vid!

Japanese players who go to the MLB always say that one of the hardest things they have to adjust to, is the minimal amounts of practice they get before the game. Seiya Suzuki, known quite famously in Japan for practicing a lot despite his already successful career in npb, said in an interview that he had to find time to practice by himself in the MLB, since practice sessions before games are extremely short, and major league players simply don’t practice as much as normal npb players. Really shows the difference in culture between the two.

As a Taiwanese I loved this video, baseball in Taiwan is basically the little brother of japan and although we have a very powerful baseball team it’s nothing compared to how powerful Japanese baseball has become in the last 5 years. We loved watching npb in Taiwan and have tried to learn more and more from Japan aswell

Japanese "YAKYU" baseball was derived uniquely from American-style baseball and took more than 100 years to achieve. The fact is that on this same planet, there is another baseball that exists in a different spirit than the US style. Of course, the roots of baseball are USA(or UK), but baseball that was exported to other countries from USA and took root there developed in a different way. This would be a fact. 2023 WBC was the day that ”Japanese YAKYU” defeated the home of ”American-style baseball”. Another way to describe this is to say that it was a battle between Japanese-style "ZEN-INｰYAKYU” baseball, which emphasizes "Teamwork among all players", and American-style baseball, which emphasizes "Individual power players", and it was a day when ZEN-INｰYAKYU (Teamwork-oriented organizational baseball) won. Japanese "YAKYU" baseball is different from American-style baseball. The facts of what is happening are outside the American way of thinking. First of all, the point is the fact that a team of players raised on Japanese-style YAKYU BASEBALL can beat a team raised on American-style BASEBALL in an official game. And why can that happen? It is not because there are many blessed players like Otani waiting in the wings in Japan. First, the Japanese baseball education system to bring up players is different from that in the United States. Second, the way to set goals in the game is different. In Japan, the way to win a baseball game is to concentrate on scoring as many runs as possible with the combined efforts of all players in the game, rather than on demonstrating the superhuman ability of an individual. In other words, the goal is to win games through the coordinated play, cooperative play, and role-sharing of the entire team rather than a single superstar. Rather than a collection of individual plays, they aim to play baseball in which all team members beat the opposing team in a game by the combined strength of the team and organizational skills of all team members. Third, to develop the players' physical and mental strength, based on their individual characteristics, they should voluntarily set individual improvement goals and work stoically and tirelessly toward the final goal from their youth. And they believe that doing so ascetically is a very valuable action. These three points in particular are different from the American style, or to put it another way, they may just be different points of importance or emphasis. If Ohtani had been educated and raised in the U.S., Shohei Ohtani might not exist in MLB today. Also, if an unknown American boy grew up as a baseball boy in Japan, he might become a player with a body like Otani's. It means that environmental factors and ways of thinking are more important than DNA. I suppose that these differences in baseball are the result of cultural differences that stem from the long history of differences in living standards and natural environments.

I think the most shocking fact was that the MOST pitches thrown in the 2023 season was 117… NOBODY got to the 120’s.. WILD

I played baseball on an American high school team in Japan. Our main competition was the other international schools and US military base schools in the area, but we would also play Japanese schools during the season. Mind you, none of the Japanese schools we played were Koshien caliber, but they would smoke us every time.

I know it’s not the same, but high end Texas High school football has a lot of similar practices that really don’t get talked about. I and a lot of other kids I knew destroyed our bodies bc we would be bullied out of getting injuries checked out, we would get pinned against one another constantly, underclassmen and upperclassmen with no prospects of starting were used as literal live tackling dummies for us to practice getting an idea of the other teams plays, so much so that often JV only got about 30 minutes of practice a week the day before game day to actually practice got there own games. I had a friend who almost died bc he kept being told he was just trying to get out of practice when he said he was sick, they wouldn’t let him leave till he started to throw up blood, turned out good appendix was in the process of bursting. He left a starter and came back 3 weeks later after being berated about being out and never touched the field again in a game in any meaningful way. My first head coach was allowed to step down rather than be fired after he slammed a players head off a locker when he caught them with a vape. They used to hit us, verbally abuse us in ways that were nuts looking back. We would lift and train for 2 hours before school, we would watch film for an hour before practice, practice for 3 hours in the beating Texas sun, then go for another hour long lift to finish up the day. When I went to quit after my 3rd hip surgery my head coach looked at me and said, “I destroyed my knees and I don’t regret it, I think this is just you taking the pussy way out.” And I just left his office without saying anything else. I was a pretty important player to the team as we were thin at offensive line as it was and I was the second best of the ones we had, and they just saw you as a stepping stone to move them along in there career to either an athletic director position at one of the 5A or 6A schools or a good position on a college coaching staff. It’s just very predatory on young kids and using there dreams to manipulate them and use them into accomplishing your own. Not all the coaches are that way, but A LOT of them are.

While I can appreciate the intensity and commitment it’s great to hear that the abusive culture has changed. There is no question that those kids are committed and dedicated, while discipline is great, there’s a fine line between abuse and discipline, that said they are doing a lot to address it these days. That said, it’s great for the MLB & Baseball in general that Japanese baseball is getting more recognition and exposure; plus it’s amazing to see more Japanese players in the MLB too.

As a 23 year old Japanese guy who played baseball for 12 years in Japan, this content is so fun to watch. When in it comes to abusing, when I was in junior high school, I got kicked at my belly by a coach, but it was totally fineI got used to it and he’s too old no power When I was in high school, we were so focused on baseball to go to “Koshien”. In Japan, we have almost no rest day, personally when I was in a junior high school n high school, we had only one rest day in a week. I dumped my girlfriends cuz I wanted to practice it more and I had to study for uni we rarely had time to hang out with friends But this memory in high school is my treasure

To put those population numbers in context, Japan is 124 million people total. That means half the population of the entire country watched the national team’s exhibition games 😮

I always appreciate how you keep the density of information consistent in your videos. This was an hour long but none of that time felt wasted; there were questions that came after I heard something you said and you answered them immediately afterward.

Another perspective on the crying. Consider the following. You just realized that your baseball career is over, as you've lost the last tournament game in your 3 years of high school. You get flashbacks of all the training and sacrifice over not only high school but years previous. Seven days of repetive grounders, cleaning the baseball grounds with your hands, 35+ degree temperature, verbal and physical humilation. But you strive on. It's all you've known for years. Surrounding you now are teammates, who've taken the journey with you. Your juniors come and both congratulate and console you, thanking you for your guidance, promising to continue the fight. All is over now ... bittersweet. Every year, this is what many highs schoolers go through. After you've given your all, and finality inevitably comes ... how can you not cry?

Could u imagine "big boss" rolling into Dodger Stadium on the hovercraft. The opposing team would be so butt hurt. The atmosphere of Japanese baseball is sick!!

One fact I'd like to add about koshien and best performances: There was one player named Seiichi Shima, who back in 1939 pitched 5 games, allowed 5 hits, 5 shutouts, 57 Ks, and 2 no hitters in the semi finals and finals which earned him the nickname "The legendary pitcher". Sadly he was killed in ww2 before he ever got the chance to play professionally

I love how they appear to be yelling at each other and just a random kiss is given.

I honestly cannot wait for the next WBC just to see the Japanese team play. Those guys are nuts.

Koshien is like the ultimate pilgrimage for any baseball fan.

Stories of abuse in high school baseball sounds like an extreme version of how American Football is treated in the US. Still remember an incident when a player broke his leg and missed practice for 2 weeks. He ended up having to run up and down the football field, and do a push-up every 5 yards. He did that 14 times, to make up the 14 days of practice he missed.

Even though they lost by 82 points in the summer Koshien tournament, they cannot afford to give up. They are the players who know that this game will be their last official match in their baseball life, and their best friends.

Ohtani striking out Trout to win the WBC is one of the greatest moments in baseball history

I often joke about the idea of Shohei Ohtani being created in a lab as part of something akin to a supersoldier program, but the more I see of Japanese baseball culture? The more I think they might *actually* try and do that, lol.

Watching Ohtanis run as the GOAT culminating in him winning the JPN-USA against his American teammate who is also considered by some is one of the Greatest players is nothing short of poetic. How could you not love baseball?

Because of my business, I would frequent Japan, and one occasion, I spent a month in Nagoya. The place where I worked was near a little league field. Every day I would spend my dinner sitting in the stands watching the kids practice and would sometimes watch a game during the weekends. They were so fundamentally sound with every aspect of the game.

Dude I was so enthralled by this video that I didn't know it was an hour long until after I finished it and started reading the comments.

Suddenly, Tanaka's talk from "Major League II" about a baseball player needing to be a "warrior" makes a lot more sense.

Seeing this after seeing “Ace of Diamond” anime, this puts it into another perspective, and I absolutely loved it. I think I’m going to rewatch it, that’s how hyped up this video got me for Japanese baseball. P.S. 1 hour video from their channel a gift from the creator. We your fans thank you.

As an american who never got into baseball until watching the anime Major just so i could appriciate the sport 10 years ago, Its since to see an indepth look at japanese baseball, the history and traditions and how its evolving.

my god... I never would have thought that practice conditions could reach that level of demand. What a video too. It didn't feel like an hour long. I was HOOKED!

As someone who's actually been to a Japanese Baseball game, yeah I completely agree with this video. These guys LOVE the sport. I went to see the Yokohama BayStars back in 2011. They were a basement dwelling team and the cheering and support was like being at the Super Bowl. I learned that day that the most expensive seats in the house aren't necessarily best. Next time I'm over there, I'm getting a seat next to first base.

1 hour long bde video is just what i needed

This is one of the best pieces of sports journalism I've ever seen. So excited to read more about Japanese baseball.

I grew up playing my countries version of baseball but as a kid never really had an opportunity to get familiar with American or Japanese baseball so had no idea of any of this going on. However this was such an amazing video. So well put together and narrated that in my opinion it deserves to be on Netflix and other streaming platforms.

Baseball coincidentally follows a similar structure to traditional turn-based JRPG combat. No wonder they took to it so well.

Japan has so many good baseball players it’s crazy. Lot of dudes in the NPB that aren’t going to come over to MLB or too young can easily step into starting roles.

The statistics about injury in Japan is only among the professionals with bodies that were able to endure their practice scheme. Imagine all the ordinary citizens with life-long injuries from training that are not accounted for

It's actually not just baseball. This practice-to-death principle coupled with sever abuse and disciplinary practices done by coaches, managers, senpai, and even same-year teammates apply to almost every sport including female sports here in Japan. I, myself, can verify this since I went to a sister high school of Japan Sport Science University and experienced and witnessed every hardship, abuse, and disciplinary practice you probably can't even begin to imagine through a high-school swimming team I was a member of. In a way, your coaches become your parents and beat you up physically when you make mistakes, don't live up to their expectations, or act any differently from the rest, not to mention the abuse you might receive from your senpai, classmates, or even teachers both physically and psychologically

I attended a Baystars game last year (Tokyo Giants). The atmosphere was amazing!!! Exactly what you want to encounter in MLB but never do except for the playoffs. They had songs for the pitchers, batters, etc. Their cheerleader sections were as professional as a college football marching band. Japan loves baseball. Just a few weeks ago I was in Japan on New Years vacation. I saw a team of (I'm guessing) middle schoolers during their afternoon (?) run down in Enoshima while walking to the train station. I was too slow to the entrance and the entire team apologize for blocking the way and bow as they continue their run. Not saying that the child abuse isn't real but I'm glad the video highlighted that it also promoted good values of hard work & dedication to the little guys. Great video!

The 12-hour practices these kids have to endure makes me feel better about my 12-hour overnight shift. The discipline and determination in everything the Japanese do is unrivaled.

Thru the lens of baseball, I think you helped me get a lil deeper understanding of seppuku.

Awesome video!!! I don't care much about baseball but I love Japan. This was fascinating and I respect these guys!! Kids, really. Thanks for sharing and making such a great RU-vid vid!

This is entirely true. I'm Japanese and have been playing baseball for basically my entire life, but man is it tough. Nowadays its more of a taboo to force players to push themselves too hard to the point of "pissing blood" or abusing them hence public opinion, but some elite schools still have this kind of training.

I often dismissed baseball but after seeing this vid it opened my eyes to how interesting and exciting it can be

Your videos are so good, I realised I was rewatching this again and didn't mind one bit.

An hour long video talking about Japanese baseball is a blessing

Sometimes people idolize Asian ways of learning or existing but I don't see borderline psychotic things as 'cool'. USA sees things as they deserve to be in importance. Baseball is a game for kids tbh, we love it and its great to see adults play it hard and at high skill but its not meant to be life or death. I think the childhood happiness and lazier point of view as a benefit of living in the USA not a embarrassment or something like that. Its a testament to the USA life ethic that we are even close to competing with Japan and China. Its because we have TIME to do other things and DREAM that we are so innovative. I agree that laziness has become out of control in the USA and our children test scores are proof of that, we could work harder.

The amount of effort that went into this video is staggering. Well done. I felt like I just watched a 30 for 30 special but better.

The same type of person throughout Japanese history that would’ve become Samurai are now in Japanese Baseball. This makes it quite easy to understand.

The World Baseball Classic this past March was legendary; epic matches like Japan vs Mexico, their Championship Match vs USA with Ohtani facing Trout in the 9th inning and having viewership ratings that far surpass any other country. Their passion and dedication to the sport is intense, scary yet impressive. Japan's too strict or the US is too soft in baseball? Japan brings discipline, Latinos bring spice and fun

Japanese here. There are few things Japanese boys do. Baseball, plastic model kit, and fishing. I did all that. I started playing baseball when I was 6. Coach wouldn't let us drink water in the hot summer days during the training.He slapped me, punched me, kicked me if I don't do well. Terrible.

I got to be honest, an 1 hour long video is tough to watch, but not for this channel. Is entertaining, narrative and even funny the way you tell the stories, and situations in your videos. Great job!

*Please do more stories on the unique baseball cultures in different countries.* This is one of my top 5 favorite videos you’ve made. Thank you ⚾️ 👊🏻

An hour of sweet, sweet Baseball Doesn't Exist content is exactly what I needed right now!

Spring Training has been amazing so far, listening to all the interviews with the players about their off season, sounds like a lot are not taking any time off, heading right to Florida in November, fly home for Xmas then gettin back at it till Spring starts.

Comment from Japan. Not only baseball clubs but also other school sports teams are doing those militaristic practice. Because the practice start at 6:00AM in the morning, I needed to wake up at 4:30AM. Then, we have 7 classes in the morning and afternoon. After that, I had 4~5 hours practice. Baseball teams is usually the hardest sports club in the school. They are doing more than my experience.

As a 23 year old Japanese guy who played baseball for 12 years in Japan, this content is so fun to watch. When in it comes to abusing, when I was in junior high school, I got kicked at my belly by a coach, but it was totally fine😂I got used to it and he’s too old no power When I was in high school, we were so focused on baseball to go to “Koshien”. In Japan, we have almost no rest day, personally when I was in a junior high school n high school, we had only one rest day in a week. I dumped my girlfriends cuz I wanted to practice it more and I had to study for uni 😅 we rarely had time to hang out with friends But this memory in high school is my treasure 😌

Ryuhei Ueda, the famous Japanese comedian who entertained the audience with a kiss at the beginning of this video, died by suicide the year before last. May he rest in peace

I went to a Tokyo Swallows-Hanshin Tigers regular season game while i was there. I was super impressed by the crowd participation, all the fans knew all the chants. Hanshin was the away team and they completely filled up the visiting section and brought a pep band. Dont see that in the MLB lol

Im from latin america where baseball and soccer are king I only watch baseball during the WBC only to watch Japan this players are amazing to watch the way they dominate all those MLB super stars from venezuela dominican republic and USA

I love Japanese baseball. Everyone should experience going to a game at least once in their lives. The school I teach at is known for baseball and it’s a joy to watch the kids play. Makes me wish I played baseball as a kid. 😂

I remember the moment we won WBC for the first time. A teacher at school stopped teaching and we all cheered for the final game together 😂

Almost zero interest on baseball in my life and ironically I work right in front Rimini (Italy) baseball's stadium. This is a great video. Kudos

I remember when Yuki Saito actually came to South Carolina a year after winning the Koshien as part of a series between the Japanese and American college all-star teams that was to be played a week later in North Carolina. His team played the Columbia Blowfish in the game I went to, and despite the Blowfish not being that good for a college summer team at the time would beat the Japanese All-Stars. One player who graduated from the same high school as mine even got a big hit off Saito in the 6th inning. There were a swarm of Japanese media covering Saito and I was even interviewed by one reporter since I was pretty much the only person in the crowd who had heard of Saito and knew his nickname (which I learned in the local newspaper which most people don't read).

The amount of work you put on these videos is totally unmatched. So fluid and entertaining. Incredible work!

I am Korean..but I respect Japanese baseball spirit.

As someone who's lived in Japan for nearly 20 years, I can vouch for everything in this video. Amazing job 👍

I've not been into Baseball long, as I'm in the UK and it's not a big deal over here, I kind of stumbled into it during covid, I know aside from the U.S, Baseball is massive in Japan, I just want to say thanks for the videos, and helping me learn more about it

Been watching your videos for a while now and, hands down, this one is your best. Extremely well done, eye opening, and informative. Loved it!

Don't watch Baseball just always knew it was weirdly popular in Japan, you kept me here for the full hour, well done and thank you.

The footage of the coach wearing a tracksuit pulling the student's hair and kicking the student hanging on the bar was from a tv show. The actor is famous for a movie called Enter the Ninja.

These Koshien stories about guys throwing a million pitches are insane. If I saw a sports anime where the pitcher main character threw a 200 pitch complete game then threw another 200 pitch complete game the next day I would assume it was a laughable exaggeration, but not only does it happen but we have it on tape! That’s insane

As someone who is an International baseball scorer for the WBSC and has scored tournaments all over the world involving these Japanese phenoms when they were young and also with NPB, including the 2021 gold medal game in Tokyo, I knew a lot of this about Japan and their baseball process. But this video was still awesome, informative, interesting and well well done. Props to Baseball Doesn't Exist for this! I know baseball fans in the small baseball countries in Europe and other places will really really enjoy this as well. I had other stuff to do, but just sat and watched this video uninterrupted. Loved it!

I love em. They know what baseball is. Fun. Entertainment. An extremely technical sport. This is where the game belongs. Mariners till I die.

As someone who has lived and taught in Japan--this is why I have felt Ohtani is a unicorn or anomaly. His character shines the way for the J. players to emulate--BUT in a different way. Let me try to explain if you care to listen. If you can imagine--bullying and bad behavior by the coaches begets bullying and the same. A high majority of the players live for the "glory", while becoming bullies and the worst "jocks" you can imagine. A high majority. They are young so the cannot be faulted. Especially about this: their futures are sacrificed severely by the system. They cannot read and write properly. They get through by cheating and faking as much as they can. Then, they end up as adults who are almost illiterate for a highly literate J. society. Not all of course, but way way too many. They also lack in many other developmental areas by that time--critical thinking skills, proper manners, social skills, etc. As a result, many become bullies--like a natural reaction. (And I have seen them being ridiculed (privately) at the university level for their "brainless" ways. The lucky ones get a university scholarship and get a pass through the system at that level too. When I say "pass", imagine some of the worst US practices of the past and go way beyond that.) I feel very badly about their predicaments. They were used by the system (as PR and to bring prestige to their schools) from the time their talent was apparent--around JHS. They did not deserve any of this. I tried to explain the abusive ways to university colleagues--pleading with them to consider the futures of the athletes. It ALL fell completely on deaf ears. No one understood or acknowledged even the gist of what I was trying to get at. So I did my best to teach them and try to give them something to go on for their lives (as very, very few had a future in pro sports). Teaching them often felt like the movie "Stand and Deliver". Each new cohort required renewed efforts and challenges for me as their teacher--at the university level. Yes, they will show ultra respect to their coaches; but they will not offer the same to their teachers and fellow students. Not at all. The coaches usually do not intervene--because they were the same. And their coaches were the same. They have almost lived in the bubble of this short term fame and glory. They coaches are trying to cling to that glory and milk it for a career. Most of the students fell in line after recognizing I wanted something better for them. But it was not easy. I had to use a "tough love" approach even in the classroom. Not like their coaches but setting a limit for terrible behavior. And doing my best to show them I was unafraid--while putting out my best for them. Like I said, kind of like those movies. (And then I moved to a new school after I got older to avoid teaching students of this nature--for my own health and peace of mind.) But the damage was usually done and so hard to turn around--educationally, socially, and sometimes emotionally. And it was hard to be the lone member of the faculty trying to do this on my own. Very hard. (I even often felt that the young university players looked like old men in some ways. Sunburned over and over for years and burnt out in many other ways too. It took a toll and their eyes sometimes revealed pain, struggle and disappointment--almost like an older man. But mostly it was the fatigue. General and ingrained fatigue that I had not seen in young people before. I think/hope they climb back out of that hole after they quit baseball for good. And they do graduate. The system allows it almost "no matter what". But the developmental damage was very, very hard to witness. It was painful to see. Then, came along Ohtani. People did not understand why I claimed he was unlike players I had been around in Japan. Of course, the video depicts the worst of the worst. However, the basic premise of the documentary is spot on to me. Still, there are teams, coaches, and players who do enough of the right things. Plus, it seems Ohtani's parents were exceptional. Gee, one of the greatest things Ohtani might do someday in his career will not be any HOF performances in the MLB. It might be giving back to his country in a way that can save all these boys from abuse. Generational abuse. He might be able to push changes toward a way that kids get enough of the right things--and eliminate the worst of the worst coaches, rules, abusive practices, and mindsets. Videos like these are a start. United Nations reports are also a start. I wrote two academic papers on aspects of the situations (I could not take them on directly or I would have been censored--better a little than nothing). But they were totally ignored. (The video is accurate. Though the kissing stuff upfront is one crazy comedian connected to one team. Even Shinjo's antics are his own. But the context and examples are well researched and accurate to me. Well done.)

It is worth noting that the 2023 summer high school baseball tournament was won by one of the smartest high schools in Japan, which allowed players to choose their hairstyle freely and left much of their practice to their own discretion.

I feel spoiled watching this amazing content truly one of the best channels on the platform thanks for the non stop entertainment

Random trivia on Matsui, he actually used to trade pornography with reporters in Japan, so the offer was likely serious.

Koshien is a dream destination for children who play baseball, and a place where high school students absolutely want to participate. High school students practice hard every day to earn the right to participate. Japanese people love the pure efforts and passionate battles of high school students.

and to think that Ohtani went through this system, dominated it, and still be the nicest guy in the world? my respect for the guy (as high as it already was) has just gone through the roof. And of course, this goes for all the other players in Japan as well. I knew it was strict but I didn't know it was this outrageously strict.

The story of the catcher playing with teeth knocked out is nutty. When I was in high school I got my front tooth nearly knocked out by a fastball and got a root canal from it, painful.

Aweome video. I already saw a video about the NPB and its teams. Now thiss video teaches me about Japanese baseball culture, the good and the bad, as a whole.

My grandmother most important time of the year was high school baseball season. I was born and raised in Japan but you sir have dug into things that even Japanese media struggles to tackle due to the cultural importance. One small thing I wanted to add was that practically every school can participate and most of the star players move into being majors such as ohtani and even if they stop after high school some major companies will simply hire them just for that achievement. But to young Japanese men it has always been a symbol that is tangible to all high schoolers that anyone can reach greatness with the right mentality and hard work. But ya shocked to hear the extent.