Local softball club teams are providing an outlet for junior high school students whose schools do not have baseball teams. One such team is the Tokyo Johoku Noyer Winds, based in Nerima and Itabashi Wards in Tokyo. Manager Junichi Ishizawa (59), who launched the team last spring, said, “I want to create an environment where children can enjoy baseball and continue playing it as a lifelong sport.” (Shohei Sakai)
◆ Practice freely and don’t get yelled at even if you make a mistake
The players chased the white ball at their leisure on the Arakawa riverbed ground. Even when they made a mistake during batting practice, there was no yelling, and advice from the manager and coaches was kept to a minimum. The players called out to each other, checking their plays and freely sharing anything they noticed. When a male student on a trial team hit a sharp ball during batting practice, there were repeated shouts of “nice batting!”
Tokyo Johoku Neuer Winds players working hard on defense in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo
Yasunari Toyama (3rd grade) joined the team in April last year after his junior high school softball club was closed due to a decrease in members. “Everyone is good, and we can enjoy playing baseball without stress.” He plans to continue playing baseball in high school.
◆There is no baseball team in the junior high school…We need a team that can accommodate the casual baseball players.
There are various reasons why children are turning away from baseball, including a declining birthrate and the diversification of sports. According to the Japan Junior High School Athletics Federation, there will be about 130,000 boys’ softball club members registered with the federation in fiscal 2023, down about 114,000 from 10 years ago. In Tokyo, the number has decreased by about 7,000, and baseball clubs are being suspended or discontinued one after another.
There are options for joining hardball senior or boys teams, but many of the teams are based on the assumption that students will go on to strong private high schools, and “there are not many places for casual players who just want to enjoy baseball,” says Ishizawa. He wants players to continue playing baseball for a long time, regardless of their level. He has experience as a coach at the Nerima Arcs Junior Baseball Club, a school baseball team that puts the enjoyment of its players first, and he launched a new team in March last year with the desire to create an environment where graduates can continue playing baseball.
Ishizawa, holding a bat and keeping a close eye on the players’ play, in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo
The slogan is “player-centered.” It is a philosophy that the players are at the center, and the people around them learn from each other and grow together. He feels that extreme victory-first mentality and old-fashioned teaching methods are driving children away from baseball, and he claims, “If the casual baseball demographic doesn’t expand, the baseball population will continue to decline. If more and more teams with the same idea were to appear, the overall picture of baseball would expand.”
◆ My high school days were so stressed out over what my instructors thought and I couldn’t enjoy them anymore
At the root of this philosophy is a problem consciousness based on his own experience. He says that in his high school baseball club, he was subjected to unreasonable coaching every day. “I had no freedom. The coaches’ ideas were forced on me, and I could no longer enjoy myself.”
After graduating, he left baseball, but about 15 years ago, when he became a coach for a Toshima Ward elementary school baseball team that his eldest son had joined, he was shocked by a practice game against a strong team. “The opposing team’s first to ninth batters were in a bunting stance until there were two strikes. What I experienced in high school had spread to elementary school.” The tactic of shaking up the pitcher and aiming for a walk may give the game an advantage, but it limits the opportunities for players to hit freely. Since then, he has decided to break away from the idea of victory being the most important thing.
◆ All bench members will have the opportunity to bat and play defensively
Noyer Winds practices on weekends, up to four hours per day. If there are club activities at school, they can take priority. In games, not only the starting members but also all players on the bench take turns at batting and are guaranteed an opportunity to play defense. By not joining a sports federation, they are not bound by precedents and are committed to creating an environment where players can enjoy baseball with a free mind.
Currently, we are aiming to establish a new league that brings together teams with the same philosophy. We plan to introduce unique rules such as full participation and hold league games throughout the year. We believe that returning to the roots is the only way to open up the future.
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◆ The decline in the birthrate is surpassing the decline in baseball, with some municipalities no longer having teams
The number of baseball players in Japan has decreased by about 600,000 between 2010 and 2022.
The Japan Baseball Association, which works together with professional and amateur baseball teams to address issues facing the baseball world, such as promoting and promoting the sport, released a research report last year that contained some shocking figures.
According to the report, the number of players registered with each sport’s governing body in 2022 was approximately 1.02 million. The number of players in high school hardball baseball, which had remained at around 160,000 until 2017, has fallen to 130,000. There has also been a significant downward trend in elementary school baseball, with approximately 9,800 teams registered with the All Japan Rubber Ball Baseball Association in 2022. This is the first time that the number has fallen below 10,000, and the number of players has also fallen by 40% from 12 years ago to approximately 170,000.
Koshien Stadium, the sacred ground of high school baseball players. How will the decline in the baseball population affect it? (File photo)
Ryuta Minami, a specially appointed assistant professor at Yamanashi Gakuin University who was involved in the research and writing of the report, said, “It’s natural that there will be a decrease due to the declining birthrate, but the way in which it is decreasing is problematic.” The decrease in the number of children under the age of 15 during the same period was 13.5%. The pace of people moving away from baseball is far greater than the declining birthrate.
The situation is particularly serious in rural areas, where it used to be common for there to be one team per elementary school, but now there are areas where there is one team per municipality. Special Assistant Professor Minakata worries that “if things continue like this, there will be children who want to play baseball but can’t.”
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Professional baseball attracted 25.07 million spectators last season, regaining the excitement it had before the COVID-19 pandemic. With baseball set to return to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, there are many bright spots in the baseball world, but the future is far from optimistic, with children increasingly turning away from baseball. We look at the challenges the sport faces and explore the future of Japanese baseball through the people involved.
2024-06-08 21:02:20
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