Japanese Citizens Views and Ideas

This question sounds a lot like this question. Are you in the same class as "km"-san?

I think what's happened is that there's been a teacher's workshop somewhere, and they've distributed a model lesson plan which included all these questions. So in a way, the teachers are just as lazy as the students.

no i'm not from the same class as km-san. but i really want people who live in Japan to talk to me about what and how they feel about players leaving for the MLB. and what type of impaact it has had on them. thank you

I live in Japan, and have for a total of more than 14 years. As mentioned above, your question is pretty well covered (for my opinion, anyway) in this thread. Similar questions had been raised all through the off season, and a lot of "doom and gloom" articles that I strongly disagree with had been printed in the mainstream press (also of which I've ranted a great deal in the archives here).

- Do you think Japanese baseball players should come to MLB? Why?

I've stated a number of times that I'm happy for any who want to pursue their dreams and go. I just don't pay as much attention to them after they do, though. I prefer to watch the domestic game.

- What type of change economically (have they lost or gained money.) has there been to the leagues and teams?

Partially answered in one of the links in the above article.

Orix and Yakult made some short term profit from selling their players to the highest bidder. Yokohama and Hanshin lost star players without any compensation as they were free agents. They would have gotten 1.5 times the player's previous year salary or accept a player in return should their free agents had gone to another Japanese team. That puts such teams (losing players via free agency) on the losing side of things - losing a key player and getting nothing in return.

- What type of changes socially?

As mentioned a couple of times before, I belive that social changes have had more effect on the game (attendance-wise) than the game (and defecting players) have had on society.

If there has been any social benifits, it's been that Japanese have taken pride in how well their players have done at the "top level" of the game.

- Have new players stepped up and become new stars?

I mentioned one such case in the previous incarnation of this question.

- Have there been any other big changes with fans going to games?

As I said in the above link, look at the many "doom and gloom" articles, specifically one that is linked in my answer to the previous questions.

Well, if this is emblematic at all, at an event in Hideki Matsui's hometown in Ishikawa Prefecture, they took an informal poll of how the attendees felt about Godzilla going to MLB and what got the big thumbs up was indeed Matsui going to the bigs. I think Japanese
feel a lot of pride at the success of their MLB players.

Giants fans themselves are now a lot more open (or maybe more resigned) to the idea and no longer object with quite the fervor they once did to the idea.

Moreover, just to perhaps build on what Michael-san has said about the doom and gloom scenarios vis a vis pro yakyu, there has been a boom in minor league attendence
here in the U.S. and, in fact, it has been able to support two independent leagues not affiliated with MLB
(ask Tom O'Malley what he's been doing the last four years for example). And cities have been sending feelers out to minor league clubs attempting to lure them to their town. Something akin to that could very well happen to pro yakyu.

Finally, and I can only speak for myself here, the peculiarities, if you will, of the Japanese game are
hella fascinating, even if there are facets that irritate the bejesus out of me (see my articles at Baseball Guru, for example). It could be that in Japan
those things that make the Japanese game different from
the great MLB homogenization machine will continue to draw folks to the ballpark. At least I hope so.

But what would really make a boom in pro yakyu attendance go would be a sounder Japanese economy. Thus, it may lag a bit in the short term, though you
wouldn't know there was a recession if you judged by the attendance of the Daiei Hawks, for example. Yappari nothing succeeds as winning does.