He draws on his experience of living in Japan for some four decades, and on thirty-five years of reporting on Japanese baseball for the Japanese press. In his work he has suggested that there are some distinctive traits and characteristics that Japanese ballplayers exhibit in their approach to the game. The frenzied year-round media coverage and the organized fan groups reflect an obsession with the game that peaks during high school baseball tournaments.
In Japan, baseball is much more than a game. The debate between these two keen observers of Japanese baseball speaks to the larger debate within Japanese studies about the issue of national character. Is it possible to discern a set of traits that can usefully be said to constitute a national character? If so, what is that character and how is it evinced? How does this national character debate relate to that concerning invented traditions? How do traditions, invented or selected, shape and permeate the modern?
Does baseball suggest something about national identity? What kind of embedded meanings might lurk within such terms? On the eve of the World Cup, hosted by Germany in June, hopes ran high for the Japanese national team, which interestingly enough was called Samurai Blue. The media made a major event of baseball legend Sadaharu Oh signing the team banner just below the name. This essay draws on a speech delivered a conference hosted by Michigan State University in April , which was also attended by Kelly.
The success of players like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui in the United States has once again demonstrated the power of sport in crossing national borders. More importantly, the accomplishments of these athletes have served to influence the way many Americans and Japanese look at each other, and raised anew questions about the role of culture in sport. Not so very long ago, there were executives in the highest echelons of American baseball who were still talking privately, in not very nice terms, about keeping those Japanese in their place.
The subsequent emergence of an enormous new market for Mariner, Yankee and White Sox telecasts in Japan has also helped. All in all, that represents quite a transformation. The excellent play of the Japanese baseball players and their positive personalities have changed the American image of the Japanese. Finally, it might be said that the Ichiro experience seems to have helped usher in a new era of acceptance of Americans in Japan.
