Shinya Tomonari: Devoting Himself to Human Resource Development Through Baseball in Africa

At the time, Keio Senior High School had been away from Koshien for about 20 years, so Koshien was a distant dream. I thought my baseball career would end in high school, but for some reason, I played well in the final summer prefectural qualifier against the powerhouse Buso High School. After being invited by a senior and agonizing over the decision, I joined the baseball club at the university as well.

When I entered the university, the shortstops included Kazuaki Ueda (later of the Giants) in his 4th year, Nobuyasu Nara in his 3rd year, and Tsutomu Fuse in his 2nd year. During batting practice, when a ball flew between third and short, Mr. Ueda would move around it with light steps and whip the ball to first in a single step.

Next, Mr. Nara would quickly get to an even deeper ball and throw a tremendous strike from there without taking a step. Seeing that, I thought, "I won't even make it onto the bench."

There were players active in the league games like Kazumi Saruta, Satoshi Suzuki, Ken Kato, and Yutaka Kato. These members were selected for the All-Japan team and went to the USA-Japan Collegiate Baseball Championship. There were many excellent players among both seniors and juniors, and I was fortunate enough to experience winning the national championship twice during my time there.

I wanted to do international work, and since international real estate was starting to become popular at the time, I thought it looked cool and joined Cosmos. However, as soon as I joined, the Recruit scandal broke out and the bubble burst, so international real estate was no longer an option. While wondering what to do, I saw that JICA was recruiting mid-career hires and changed jobs.

Once I joined JICA, I found the work incredibly interesting. We carry out various projects in developing countries, and JICA brings in various external experts to form teams and hold discussions. Everyone communicates to build consensus and negotiate with the other party. The experience from the baseball club was very useful in the process of establishing those projects, and it was fun. Although I couldn't even make the bench in the university baseball club, my role as a JICA staff member was like leading the team as a main player.

My first assignment at JICA was in the Public Relations Division. Public relations requires collecting various types of information, but since I was a mid-career hire, I didn't have any contemporaries. To build a network within JICA, I started a Mita-kai. It has a 30-year history now, and I am the founder.

Until just before my posting to Ghana was decided, I was playing amateur baseball seriously. After the last game, I told the manager, "I want to at least teach kids how to play catch in Ghana." He said, "Then let's all collect baseball gear for you," and we gathered about two cardboard boxes worth of gloves. That story reached the Ghana office, and soon after I arrived, I was invited: "There's a game coming up between the Ghana team and the Japanese residents. Would you like to play?"

It was set up as the All-Japan Team vs. the Ghana National Team, and I played as the number four hitter and shortstop. Although they were called the national team, the opponents were players throwing fastballs at about 110 km/h at most. I hit a timely hit and livened things up by intentionally making a diving catch on a grounder between third and short. After it was over, they said, "Please become the manager of the national team." I was surprised, but I said, "Let's do it."

Over the next three years, the Japanese TV program "Unbelievable" came to visit, and it was broadcast in Japan as the "Baseball Team Aiming for a Miracle." That was the first starting point.

There is a major experience that connects to the present. In September 1999, I took the Ghana team to the All-Africa Games, which also served as the Olympic qualifiers.

At the opening ceremony, South African President Mbeki gave a speech. He said, "Welcome to South Africa, everyone. Africa is gathered here. Africa is one!" At that moment, not just the stadium, but the delegations from 53 countries on the field erupted with excitement. I was in the middle of it and got goosebumps. It was the moment that changed my view of Africa.

As you know, Africa was colonized by Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and others, and borders were drawn arbitrarily, sometimes splitting the same ethnic groups. However, there seems to be a philosophy invisible to Japanese people, such as how Uganda accepts refugees from South Sudan because "Africa is one."

I felt that firsthand and realized it wasn't just about supporting one country like Ghana. That's why the NPO I created while at JICA is not the "Friends of Ghana Baseball" but the "Association of Friends of African Baseball." It is my aspiration to help Africa become one. That's how I started spreading baseball in Uganda, Zambia, Kenya, and so on, and I have served as the national team manager, starting baseball from scratch in Tanzania and South Sudan.

About three years after I went to Ghana, a youth baseball tournament was held. At that time, I asked a boy about 12 years old who looked like he was having fun, "What do you like about baseball?"

He replied, "I enjoy the batter's box. When I stand in the batter's box, everyone cheers only for me. If I get a hit, I can be a hero. I like baseball because everyone gets their turn equally in the batter's box and baseball is democratic." Is there a child in Japan who would say they like baseball because it's democratic? It was the first time I had heard those words. This story is the starting point of my 30 years of African baseball.

Up until then, I had seen many scenes of poverty in Ghana. In that environment, children live in a society where they are not given equal opportunities. Children of the wealthy can go to hospitals and receive school education. But many poor children drop out of school and have to help their parents with work. However, whether they are rich or poor, if they come to the field, everyone is given an equal chance to be a hero in turn.

Actually, until then, I had felt a bit guilty, wondering if teaching baseball in Ghana was just my own ego because I happened to have played baseball through university and liked it. I was redeemed by that boy's words. No, more than being redeemed, it made me feel that baseball is a sport that is precisely what children living in such harsh environments need.

My final posting with JICA, South Sudan, is a country where the longest civil war in human history has continued for half a century. There are 64 ethnic groups, and the two major forces, the Nuer and the Dinka, are in conflict.

In South Sudan, I took baseball gear and said to students at the local University of Juba, "Let's play catch." This was the beginning of baseball in South Sudan. I said, "Let's do it again next week," and as I started coming every Sunday, children who had been peeping through cracks in the wall climbed over and joined in, growing to 30 or 40 people. I said, "Well, shall we hold a baseball clinic?" and the clinics began.

School teachers who learned about this came to watch. When I said, "This is a sport where you can learn discipline, respect, and justice," they said, "That's wonderful. Please start a baseball club at our school," and baseball club teams began to spread.

Then the reputation spread to education officials, who began to say, "The young people who have cultivated the values of discipline, respect, and justice will surely bring peace to the future of South Sudan. Let's make this sport called baseball a national sport," and the South Sudan Baseball Federation was established. At that time, the president was from the second-largest force, the Nuer, and the secretary general was from the largest force, the Dinka. Through baseball, ethnic groups that had been at odds joined hands to establish a baseball federation to create future peace. I was moved by that experience and felt firsthand that baseball has the "Power to Create Peace."

In establishing J-ABS, I thought I needed an influencer-like person who could empathize with the philosophy, and I felt it had to be Hideki Matsui.

So, I decided to approach Isao Hirooka, who was a close aide of his. Mr. Hirooka was a reporter for the Hochi Shimbun, but when Mr. Matsui challenged the Major Leagues, he was asked to go to America with him. At that time, Mr. Hirooka declined a promotion to a major newspaper and changed jobs to the public relations department of the New York Yankees, despite a drastic cut in salary. I felt that for someone with such resolve, I had to show the resolve of quitting JICA.

That sentiment got through, and he said, "If you have that much resolve, I will tell Matsui." Then Mr. Matsui also showed great interest and said, "Please create a position suitable for me," and he was appointed as the "Executive Dream Partner."

The activities of J-ABS differ from previous baseball promotion activities in that they position baseball as a tool for human resource development. Baseball is not the end, but the means, and we call these activities the "Africa 55 Koshien Project." 55 refers to the total of 54 countries and one region in Africa, and Koshien is a symbol of Japanese baseball culture that values human resource development. It is a project to convey Japan's character-building baseball culture throughout Africa.

So, how do we convey that? It is a scheme called "Basebollarship® Education." We created a textbook with 55 themes and teaching methods written in English and French. It summarizes my coaching experience in Africa, such as the Japanese style of baseball, "discipline, respect, and justice," and how to foster politeness, teamwork, compassion, and a spirit of respect through baseball coaching.

Then, we hold "Koshien Tournaments" in various African countries to create an environment where everyone works seriously, providing a place to demonstrate Basebollarship.

It was a very meaningful exchange. Ten Ghanaian coaches learning Basebollarship and Keio baseball club members joined together to form five teams and practiced how to foster Basebollarship and the spirit of "discipline, respect, and justice" from scratch with children in five regions.

I think we saw great results this year. For example, on the first day of the Ghana Koshien Tournament, although the meeting time was 8:00, each team arrived at 7:30 and voluntarily started warming up. This might be natural in Japan, but in Africa, it's close to a miracle.

Basebollarship refers to an attitude showing sportsmanship such as "discipline, respect, and justice," but the very first step starts with "why we must be on time." Japanese people follow time without thinking, don't they? If the meeting time is 3:00, everyone is gathered five minutes before.

However, the concept of time is different in Africa. In Africa, 3:00 to 3:59 is considered 3:00. So even if they arrive about an hour late, they don't consider themselves late. But then, a place where you could practice for three hours can only be used for two hours. From asking "Is that okay?" it leads to "We really should be on time."

The essence of baseball is Anticipation, Preparation, and Confirmation. In the sport of baseball, it is important to always understand the current situation, predict what will happen next, prepare for it, and confirm the results together. Even in an actual game, the time spent throwing, hitting, and running is brief; it is a repetition of anticipation, preparation, and confirmation.

Therefore, the first task is to analyze the obstacles to arriving at the field on time. For example, picking up possibilities like getting stuck in traffic or being told to do chores by their mother, and preparing for those. I tell them that a good baseball player is someone who can think about and execute that.

I feel that the Keio baseball club members also grew a lot through the exchange in Ghana.

I want human resource development through baseball to take root in many countries, so that people who can become leaders of communities, regions, and society with "discipline, respect, and justice" are produced through baseball. I believe this will change the future of Africa.

I hope to create a system that continues to spread even after I am gone—specifically, turning Basebollarship education into a school system. Since it's a school, we would conduct evaluations once every two months and report back to the parents. It's a system where people pay for that value. If money is collected, coaches can make a living from it, and money also goes to the baseball federations. I am thinking about such things for the future and have already begun working on them.

It says, "Why should we enjoy baseball?" When I was a 2nd-year student at the Senior High School, Manager Yukichi Maeda returned to manage the university baseball club, and from that time he started saying "Enjoy Baseball."

What Manager Maeda said that I really agreed with was that you shouldn't do it because you're told to; enjoy it proactively. In other words, think for yourselves; it's important to do things creatively on your own.

I didn't have many chances to talk to Mr. Maeda during my university days, but after I entered the workforce, he said to me, "Tomonari, you're working hard in Ghana, I'll support you," and he even became a member of the Association of Friends of African Baseball.

What I say in Article 55, "Why we must enjoy it," is slightly different from Mr. Maeda. I say that the goal of Basebollarship is two victories. One victory is winning against the opponent. And the other victory is winning against yourself from yesterday. In other words, "Grow." The goals are victory and your own growth. I tell them that enjoying these two things is "Enjoy Baseball," and this resonates with people in Africa.

Through Japanese baseball, African children are definitely growing. "Enjoy Baseball" is also now taking root in Africa.