Japan Travel Guide

photo credit: JoshBerglund19

Baseball in Japan is the most popular sports in the country. It is called Yakyu in Japanese, combining the characters for field and ball. In 2006 and 2009, Japan national team had proved to be king by winning both tournaments.

• 2006 WBC result & articles
  • http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/teams/index.jsp?sid=t843
• 2009 WBC result & articles
  • http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/index.jsp

The professional baseball association is called Nippon Professional Baseball. Japan has two leagues, as in the United States. The Central and Pacific Leagues each consisting of six teams. The Pacific League uses the designated hitter style of play. The pro baseball season is eight months long with games beginning in April, and a Championship held in October. Teams play 144 games, as compared to the 162 games of the American major league teams. Corporations with interests outside baseball own the teams, and teams are identified with their owners, not where the team is based (with the exception of the Yokohama BayStars). Nippon Professional Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in Japan.

• Central League
  • Yomiuri
  • Hanshin
  • Chunichi
  • Yokohama
  • Hiroshima
  • Yakult
• Pacific League
  • Seibu
  • Lotte
  • SoftBank
  • Orix
  • Rakuten
  • Nippon Ham

photo credit: yoppy

Football in Japan has become one of the most popular sports in the country. Its nation wide organization, Japan Football Association, administers the professional football league, J. League, which is the most successful football league in Asia.

• J-1 Division (Top League in Japan)
  • VEGALTA SENDAI
  • MONTEDIO YAMAGATA
  • KASHIMA ANTLERS
  • URAWA REDS
  • OMIYA ARDIJA
  • F.C.TOKYO
  • KAWASAKI FRONTALE
  • YOKOHAMA FMARINOS
  • SHONAN BELLMARE
  • ALBIREX NIIGATA
  • SHIMIZU S-PULSE
  • JUBILO IWATA
  • NAGOYA GRAMPUS
  • KYOTO SANGA F.C.
  • GAMBA OSAKA
  • CEREZO OSAKA
  • VISSEL KOBE
  • SANFRECCE HIROSHIMA
• J-2 Division(Second League in Japan)
  • CONSADOLE SAPPORO
  • MITO HOLLYHOCK
  • TOCHIGI SC
  • THESPA KUSATSU
  • JEF UNITED CHIBA
  • KASHIWA REYSOL
  • TOKYO VERDY
  • YOKOHAMA FC
  • VENTFORET KOFU
  • KATALLER TOYAMA
  • FC GIFU
  • FAGIANO OKAYAMA
  • TOKUSHIMA VORTIS
  • EHIME FC
  • AVISPA FUKUOKA
  • GIRAVANZ KITAKYUSHU
  • SAGAN TOSU
  • ROASSO KUMAMOTO
  • OITA TRINITA

more info : http://www.j-league.or.jp/eng/

photo credit: Travis Hornung

Sumo is a traditional combative Japanese sport that is well known throughout the world. Most rikishi (Sumo wrestlers) are professional competitors weighing 100 to 200 kg.

Rules are simple compared to western-style wrestling: two competitors wearing mawashi (silk belts) fight in a ring 4.5m in diameter and placed on a square mound. When any part of a competitor’s body, except the sole of the feet, touches the ground or goes out of the ring, he loses the bout.

The professional sumo tournaments take place six times a year for 15 days each in January, May and September at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, March in Osaka, July in Nagoya and December in Fukuoka.

more info : http://www.sumo.or.jp/eng/

wikipedia

Sumo (相撲, sumō^?) is a competitive contact sport where a wrestler (rikishi) attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring (dohyō) or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally. It is generally considered to be a gendai budō (a modern Japanese martial art), though this definition is incorrect as the sport has a history spanning many centuries. Many ancient traditions have been preserved in sumo, and even today the sport includes many ritual elements, such as the use of salt purification, from the days when sumo was used in the Shinto religion. Life as a rikishi is highly regimented, with rules laid down by the Sumo Association. Most sumo wrestlers are very required to live in communal “sumo training stables” known in Japanese as heya where all aspects of their daily lives—from meals to their manner of dress—are dictated by strict tradition.