Japan national baseball team
Encyclopedia
The Japan national baseball team is the national baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 team representing Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in international competitions. They are one of the more successful baseball teams in the world, having won the World Baseball Classic
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation and created by Major League Baseball , the Major League Baseball Players Association , and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world...

 in 2006
2006 World Baseball Classic
---------Pool B:-------------Pool C:-------------Pool D:-------------Pool 1:-----------------Pool 2:-------------Finals:-Semifinals:-Final:-Final standings:...

 and 2009
2009 World Baseball Classic
The 2009 World Baseball Classic was an international baseball competition. It is the only international baseball tournament to feature a large number of players from the major leagues of North America and Asia. It began on March 5, 2009, and finished March 23, 2009.Japan emerged victorious for the...

. The team is currently ranked 3rd in the world according to the International Baseball Federation
International Baseball Federation
The International Baseball Federation is the worldwide governing body recognized by the International Olympic Committee as overseeing, deciding and executing the policy of the bat-and-ball sport of baseball at the international level...

.

The team has participated in every Summer Olympic Games
Summer Olympic Games
The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Olympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that...

 since the first demonstration tournament in 1984. Until 2000, the team was made up exclusively of amateur players. Since the 2000 Summer Olympics
2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

, the team has been composed of players from Nippon Professional Baseball. The team playing in the 2006 World Baseball Classic
2006 World Baseball Classic
---------Pool B:-------------Pool C:-------------Pool D:-------------Pool 1:-----------------Pool 2:-------------Finals:-Semifinals:-Final:-Final standings:...

 included Japanese players from Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 as well. In the Classic, the team played in Pool A and placed second, advancing to round two. They went on to win the Classic. They played at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, as they had qualified through the Asian Baseball Championship in 2007. Unlike the WBC roster, the Olympic team was exclusively formed by NPB players (but included one amateur player, who was drafted during the tournament's progress).

Like other national teams in Japan, the nickname is usually prefixed with the surname of the manager. However, in the 2009 World Baseball Classic
2009 World Baseball Classic
The 2009 World Baseball Classic was an international baseball competition. It is the only international baseball tournament to feature a large number of players from the major leagues of North America and Asia. It began on March 5, 2009, and finished March 23, 2009.Japan emerged victorious for the...

, the team used Samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

, a symbol of Japan's history, instead of Hara
Tatsunori Hara
is the current manager for the Yomiuri Giants baseball team in Nippon Professional Baseball. He also played for the Yomiuri Giants during his professional baseball career from to . Hara led the Japan national baseball team to victory in the final of the 2009 World Baseball Classic.- External links :...

, the surname of their manager.

The team competed in the 2009 Baseball World Cup
2009 Baseball World Cup
The 2009 Baseball World Cup was an international baseball tournament that started on 9 September 2009. The final was held in Nettuno, Italy on 27 September 2009. It was the 38th time the World Cup took place, and the first time that it was hosted by a continent rather than a single country...

.

Asian Baseball Championship

Japan have dominated the Asian Baseball Championship since its inception, and have competed in every year. Japan have never missed out on placing in the top 3 in any tournament, and is the only team to have achieved this feat. Japan also holds the record for most consecutive Asian Championships, having won four times in a row on two separate occasions, including the four most recent tournaments to be held.

Asian Games

In all four Asian Games
Asian Games
The Asian Games, officially known as Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games they have been organised by the...

 to include baseball, Japan have placed in the top 3 in every tournament, though they have only won the tournament once in the first event held in Hiroshima in 1994.

International Competition

World Baseball Classic

2006

Japan won the inaugural World Baseball Classic
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation and created by Major League Baseball , the Major League Baseball Players Association , and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world...

, defeating Cuba in the final. This led to controversy over the regulations of the WBC concerning the fact that Korea had to face Japan three times and that it was Japan that was allowed to go to the finals, when it had four victories and three losses up to that point, two of those losses to Korea, while the Korean team, which had only one loss and had already beaten Japan twice, was eliminated from the finals.

2009

Japan also won the 2009 World Baseball Classic
2009 World Baseball Classic
The 2009 World Baseball Classic was an international baseball competition. It is the only international baseball tournament to feature a large number of players from the major leagues of North America and Asia. It began on March 5, 2009, and finished March 23, 2009.Japan emerged victorious for the...

, hosting the Pool A games in the Tokyo Dome
Tokyo Dome
Tokyo Dome is a 55,000-seat baseball stadium located in Bunkyo Ward of Tokyo, Japan.The stadium opened for business on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of the Velodrome which was next door to the site of the predecessor ballpark, Kōrakuen Stadium...

. Japan started the tournament opener with a 4-0 win over China
China national baseball team
The China national baseball team is the national representative team of the People's Republic of China.-Olympic Games:China secured qualification to the 2008 Summer Olympics automatically as host nation, giving the country its first Olympics berth....

. Japan then secured advancement into the second round with a 14-2 win in seven innings over rival South Korea. The game was shortened due to the WBC's mercy rule. Japan then played South Korea again to determine seeding for the second round. In the rematch, the Koreans shut out Japan 1-0, making Japan advance as the Pool A runner-up. In Pool 1 of the WBC quarter-finals, Japan defeated Cuba 6-0, but lost to Korea again 4-1. In the elimination match that followed, Japan secured a spot in the semi-finals with a 5-0 win over Cuba. Japan defeated South Korea in the finals 5-3 partly because of an Ichiro Suzuki
Ichiro Suzuki
, usually known simply as is a Major League Baseball right fielder for the Seattle Mariners. Ichiro has established a number of batting records, including the sport's single-season record for hits with 262...

 base hit in the 10th inning.

Placings

World Baseball Classic
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation and created by Major League Baseball , the Major League Baseball Players Association , and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world...

  • 2006
    2006 World Baseball Classic
    ---------Pool B:-------------Pool C:-------------Pool D:-------------Pool 1:-----------------Pool 2:-------------Finals:-Semifinals:-Final:-Final standings:...

     : 1st
  • 2009
    2009 World Baseball Classic
    The 2009 World Baseball Classic was an international baseball competition. It is the only international baseball tournament to feature a large number of players from the major leagues of North America and Asia. It began on March 5, 2009, and finished March 23, 2009.Japan emerged victorious for the...

     : 1st


Olympic Games
Baseball at the Summer Olympics
Baseball at the Summer Olympics had its unofficial debut at the 1904 Summer Games and its official sport at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Baseball has a long history as an exhibition/demonstration sport in the Olympics. However, for 1992 Barcelona the International Olympic Committee granted the sport...

  • 1984
    Baseball at the 1984 Summer Olympics
    Baseball at the 1984 Summer Olympics was a demonstration sport. Although single exhibition games had been played in conjunction with five previous Olympics, it was the first time that the sport was officially included in the program, and also the first time that the sport was played in Olympics...

     : 1st (demonstration sport)
  • 1988
    Baseball at the 1988 Summer Olympics
    Baseball at the 1988 Summer Olympics was a demonstration sport for the seventh time. Eight teams competed in Seoul in the baseball tournament. The format used was the same as the tournament of four years earlier. Five teams that had competed in the 1984 tournament returned.-Preliminary round:There...

     : 2nd (demonstration sport)
  • 1992
    Baseball at the 1992 Summer Olympics
    Baseball had its debut as an official medal sport at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Eight nations competed, with the preliminary phase consisting of each team playing every other team. Playoffs were then held, with the four highest ranked teams advancing...

     : 3rd
  • 1996
    Baseball at the 1996 Summer Olympics
    Baseball had its second appearance as an official medal sport at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States, with games played at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Eight nations competed, with the preliminary phase consisting of each team playing every other team. Playoffs were then held,...

     : 2nd
  • 2000
    Baseball at the 2000 Summer Olympics
    Baseball at the 2000 Summer Olympics was the third time an Olympic baseball tournament had been held as a full medal sport, and the ninth time it had been part of the Summer Olympic Games in any capacity. It was held in Sydney, Australia from 17 September through to the bronze and gold medal games...

     : 4th
  • 2004
    Baseball at the 2004 Summer Olympics
    -Preliminary round:The top four teams advanced to the semifinals. To determine the seed ranking of teams tied in the standings, the result of the two teams' game against each other was used. Japan therefore received first place due to the win over Cuba. In the semi-finals, Japan played...

     : 3rd
  • 2008
    Baseball at the 2008 Summer Olympics
    Baseball at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was held from August 13 to August 23. All games were played at Wukesong Baseball Field, a temporary venue constructed at the Beijing Wukesong Culture & Sports Center...

     : 4th


Baseball World Cup
: 4th : did not qualify : did not qualify : 3rd : 4th : 3rd   : 2nd : 4th : 5th : 4th : 5th : 3rd   : 5th : 4th : 3rd : 5th : 3rd
  • 2009
    2009 Baseball World Cup
    The 2009 Baseball World Cup was an international baseball tournament that started on 9 September 2009. The final was held in Nettuno, Italy on 27 September 2009. It was the 38th time the World Cup took place, and the first time that it was hosted by a continent rather than a single country...

     : 10th


Intercontinental Cup
Intercontinental Cup (baseball)
The Intercontinental Cup is a baseball tournament between the members of the International Baseball Federation . It was first held in 1973 in Italy, and was held every other year following until 1999....

: 1st : 2nd : 3rd : 2nd : 6th : did not qualify   : 3rd : 3rd : 2nd : 2nd : 3rd : 2nd   : 1st : 3rd : 5th : 4th


Asian Baseball Championship
Asian Baseball Championship
The Asian Baseball Championship is the main championship tournament between national baseball teams in Asia, governed by the Baseball Federation of Asia . It is held every other year in odd-numbered years and since 1983 it also functions as the qualification games for the Baseball at the Summer...

: 2nd : 1st : 1st : 1st : 2nd : 1st : 1st : 1st   : 2nd : 1st : 2nd : 2nd : 1st : 2nd : 2nd : 1st   : 1st : 1st : 2nd : 2nd : 3rd : 1st : 1st : 1st : 1st

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK