How is Japanese baseball different from American baseball?

Question

I am a Minnesota Twins fan, and have been following Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Recently he broke his leg, and a lot of sports commentators have been talking about how it was due to his style of baseball that he learned in Japan. This got me thinking about other Japanese hitters and pitchers. Few Japanese hitters seem to have high slugging percentages and total bases. Likewise, Japanese pitchers seem to come over and pitch well for a couple of years, but then they frequently have problems with injuries, mechanics, and power. This leads me to the question, what are the differences between American baseball and Japanese Baseball? Is there differences in how the players are taught the game? Is there a difference between the speed or skill in the two games?

Answer 1

Well, the most obvious difference is that mostly Japanese people play Japanese baseball....



But enough of being a smartass. Here are a few differences I've heard of over the years:



Batting stances - if you watch guys like Ichiro or Nishioka, you've probably noticed that they have odd batting stances, and they tend to start running before they swing. That's a lot more common in Japan than in the US.



Season - the season is shorter; I think they only play 140 games in Japan.



Stadiums - most of the stadiums are indoors or have artificial turf.



Pitching rotations - pitchers only pitch once per week in Japan, instead of every fifth day.





I don't think that there are fewer home runs or lower slugging %s in the actual Japanese leauges; it's just that Japanese players tend to be less powerful when they come here. I think that is likely because of differences in teh pitching style, though I haven't heard any specific ones.

Answer 2

Japanese professional baseball stresses fundamentals to a far greater degree than today's MLB. How often do you hear about a young player in the U.S. coming up and being described as "raw"...or described as "still needing to work on the basics?" That doesn't happen in the Japan leagues.



For both pitchers and hitters, power is not stressed as much as skill. This is why you seldom see an overpowering player from Japan coming to the U.S....but at the same time the players who do come here tend to do all the "little things" well...baserunning, hitting to the opposite field, bunting, etc.



Finally, Japanese players are expected to play every day from the time they are in middle school...The reason you see many players, especially pitchers, break down once they are here is because many of them have literally played thousands of innings.



For example "Dice-K" Matsuzaka became a legend in Japan while still in high school. During the national high school championships (which are as big as the Final Four in Japan), Dice-K led his team to victory by pitching over 30 innings in three days...including a 10 or 11 inning no hitter. That would be unheard of here...but is simply part of the Japanese mind-set.



A body only has a certain number of innings in it, so while Japanese players tend to have "mature" games, they also have "older" bodies by the time they get here.

Answer 3

NPB (expert eastern baseball) is a powerful paying league with staggering media coverage and rabid followers. The minor leagues play to 2,000 human beings or much less a night the optimum paid gamers get approximately $40 5,000 and that they could desire to play for particularly much all of their very very own kit. i could play in the two, yet could preffer to be a consultant in Japan to the milb interior the united states of a.

Answer 4

American baseball is better

Answer 5

The difference, people watch American Baseball. :)

Answer 6

Balls different and American penises larger.

Answer 7

look at japanese athletes,tiny and short.American athletes are big and strong and are better trained