After the Meiji period, baseball would continue to be a prevalent and impactful sport in Japan. The Japanese-American baseball fraternity continued to flourish, and many Japanese and American teams went on international baseball tours. The most significant of these trips was the 1934 Major League All-Star Tour of Japan. American baseball stars of the time, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx, traveled to Japan to play exhibition games against Japanese clubs (1). Just two years later, in 1936, the Japanese Professional Baseball League was founded, the first professional circuit in the nation. This league lasted until 1950 when it was replaced by the Central and Pacific Leagues, together known as Nippon Professional Baseball (2). The Central and Pacific Leagues exist to this day as the top two professional leagues in Japan. Today, baseball is extremely popular in Japan both at the professional and amateur levels. Over the last few decades, many Japanese baseball players have transferred to Major League Baseball in America. Hideo Nomo, a pitcher, opened the door to more Japanese players making the transition from NPB to MLB when he began a successful MLB career in 1995. Since then, Japanese MLB stars such as Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka have thrived in American professional baseball, bringing Japanese baseball into greater international light (3). In the last few years, the two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani has dominated the MLB, winning Rookie of the Year in 2018 and Most Valuable Player in 2021. Baseball in Japan had its roots in the Meiji era, developed alongside diplomatic relations with the United States, and grew into a uniquely Japanese version of the Western sport. Yakyū is deeply ingrained into the national identity of modern Japan, and it won’t be going away anytime soon.