Yuki Suga: Thinking About Baseball from a "Market" Perspective

2023/06/07

In the World Baseball Classic (WBC) held in March 2023, the Japanese national team made great strides and won the world championship for the first time in 14 years. Its economic impact was estimated at 60 billion yen in Japan alone, proving once again the popularity and business value of baseball. While baseball forms a large market within Japanese sports as a whole, this article will look at the economic and social value of baseball from the perspectives of "baseball's value" and "regional revitalization," while also exploring "town revitalization" through baseball from a sports management perspective.

First, I will briefly explain the overall picture of Japanese baseball. Japanese baseball is governed by multiple organizations, each corresponding to different age groups, competitive levels, and types of balls. For example, the "All Japan Rubber Baseball Federation" governs rubber baseball, the "Japan Student Baseball Association" governs high school and university baseball, and "Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB)" governs professional baseball.

The "Independent Leagues," which have been gaining momentum in recent years, are treated as "professional baseball" in a different form from the NPB, and players are treated as "professional players" even under the NPB draft system. However, this mixture of governing bodies includes problems such as making it difficult to grasp the overall picture of Japanese baseball, and because each federation and association operates with its own policies and rules, it is difficult to unify the direction and measures for baseball in Japan as a whole.

Next, let's consider the economic and social value of baseball. Economic value is particularly prominent in regions that have NPB teams. Every time a game is held, tens of thousands of spectators travel, and as a result, surrounding industries such as transportation, food and beverage, and lodging flourish.

In terms of specific figures, the Hanshin Tigers' 2003 league championship is said to have had an economic impact of 148 billion yen, and the Hiroshima Toyo Carp's 2016 league championship 35.3 billion yen. Compared to other forms of entertainment, baseball has value as content that brings about a massive economic effect.

On the other hand, regarding the "social value" of baseball, the example of "rubber baseball," which supports Japanese baseball at its foundation, is very easy to understand. At the time of writing, the All Japan Rubber Baseball Federation has announced that 39,313 rubber baseball teams nationwide are members. Furthermore, in the number of sports organizations registered with the Japan Sports Association for fiscal 2022, the number of registered rubber baseball teams was the highest at 6,110, which is nearly double the 3,533 teams for soccer, another popular sport. From this fact, it can be said that rubber baseball generates a great deal of social value as a community sport.

Rubber baseball is important content for baseball as a whole because it has advantages such as being playable on smaller grounds compared to hardball baseball and having high safety. Considering further increasing the "social value" of baseball in the future, the key will be how to increase the environment for enjoying rubber baseball and the population of rubber baseball players. However, in recent years, the declining player population, the resulting consolidation of teams, the shortage of instructors, and the burden on parents have become issues, and it can be said that school-age baseball in particular is reaching a turning point.

An approach that is attracting attention as a new possibility to overcome these challenges is "regional revitalization through baseball." One example is the "Sanriku Railway Kit Dreams," a sandlot baseball team formed by Sanriku Railway in 2014 to support the reconstruction of Iwate Prefecture, which was affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The players consist of Sanriku Railway employees and residents along the railway line, and former Major Leaguer Hisashi Iwakuma was invited as the general manager. Although they do not seem to be actively disseminating information at present, diverse human resources such as local residents, companies, and former professional players are deepening their interaction through the sport of "baseball" and aiming for reconstruction from the earthquake.

The "Hokkaido Frontier League (HFL)," an independent league established in 2021, is also noteworthy. In the HFL, players aim to become "human resources who work in Hokkaido" while continuing to play baseball and even after they quit baseball; players devote themselves to baseball while working in local agriculture or as elementary school teachers. If an independent league only "shows baseball," it would be limited to a position of "show business" or "entertainment," but by players "working" locally, the players themselves become "local residents," bringing significant benefits such as revitalizing the local economy and migration to rural areas.

The number of baseball players and teams is on a downward trend every year due to the impact of the declining birthrate and aging population, but from the perspective of "regional revitalization," there is no doubt that it is very high-value content. When we think from the perspective of "utilizing baseball for something," the possibilities for the future expand.