Crisis in Pro Baseball and Japan’s Lost Decade

Paul E. Dunscomb is Professor of East Asian History at the University of Alaska Anchorage, US. He is author of Japan’s Siberian Intervention, 1918–1922: A Great Disobedience Against the People (2011), the first ever complete narrative of the event in English, and Japan Since 1945 (2014) for the Association for Asian Studies Key Issues in Asian Studies Series. He has written and presented extensively on matters relating to the history of Heisei Japan. His current research project marries his knowledge of Alaskan and Japanese history into a new and comprehensive look at how the Second World War affected the fate not only of Alaska and its peoples but also the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin and residents of Northern Japan.

• Introduction: The Squeeze 1. Baseball as Business within Postwar Japan’s Political Economy, to 1992 2. Lost Decades: Troubles for Japan and NPB, 1992–2003 3. The Storm Gathers, Then Breaks, January–June 2004 4. The Crisis Broadens, Then Deepens, June–July 2004 5. Unstoppable Forces Meet Immovable Objects, July–September 2004 6. The Strike, September 2004 7. The New Normal, September–December 2004 Conclusion. “When You Come to the Fork in the Road, Take it.”

“Dr. Paul Dunscomb expertly shows that Japan's pro baseball is both a national sport and a barometer of national change. Accessibly written with remarkable detail, Japan's Pro Baseball Crisis of 2004 challenges prevailing views of Heisei-period Japan through the story of an industry in crisis, its major players, and the larger lessons it teaches about society, economics and resilience.”Alisa Freedman, Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture, University of Oregon, USA.“Baseball may be Japan’s national pastime, but in 2004 the financial struggles of the Japanese professional leagues erupted onto the headlines as a full-fledged spectator sport. In a fast-pacednarrative that takes readers into the boardroom (as well as the locker room), Paul Dunscomb tellsthe engrossing story of a pivotal moment in the evolution of Japanese baseball, when elite clubowners, players and their unions, maverick tech entrepreneurs, a sensationalistic sports media,and loyal (but often marginalized) fans jockeyed for the future of the game. Adeptlycontextualizing professional baseball within the sweeping changes in society, politics, andbusiness during Japan’s millennial “Lost Decade,” this volume is an essential addition to thescholarly literature on Japanese sports and a major contribution to the history of contemporaryJapan.”William M. Tsutsui, Professor of Japanese History and President, Ottawa University (Ottawa, KS), Canada.