The Old Ball Game

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years, Japan looked to
the major powers of the world to develop a foundation for a new country.
Included in this foundation was a need for new ideas and dreams. Of course
Japan did not completely erase thousands of years of tradition and culture, but
Japan did take many international ideas and transformed them into her own. In
the Movie Mr. Baseball, a Japanese woman describes Japan's borrowing techniques.
"Japan takes the best from all over the world and makes it Hers" (Welles).
Included in the world powers of the time was America; therefore, Japan borrowed
several ideas from the United States. One such idea just happened to be
America's National pastime, baseball.
The history of Japanese baseball dates back to the middle 1800's. They
"adopted baseball from the U.S. as early as 1873" (Constable 23), but the spark
for baseball ignited during the post war occupational years. A foreign student
from Japan explains, "The thousands of American troops stationed in Japan ...

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games" (23).
Japan has taken the American dream and shaped it to fit their basic mold.
The Japanese are known throughout the world for being extremely dedicated to
their work. This dedication has spread to their baseball. Where Americans look
at baseball as fun and entertainment the Japanese think of baseball as work. It
is expected that with the birth of a new "pastime", excitement and interest will
follow. No one in the U.S. expects a new trend, especially in the form of
recreation, to be effected by the work ethic, but Japanese standards expect the
most out of every activity including recreation. Even when baseball was center
stage in the United States, it was in no way related ...

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