Immediately following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the new ruling body of Japan embarked on a state-driven modernization program. As part of this program, government officials in Tokyo recruited over 3,000 foreign experts called oyatoi from Europe and the United States (1). These oyatoi were considered experts of Western culture and practices, and many of them were employed in the school systems of Japan in an attempt to instill their modern knowledge in the next generation of Japanese men.

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One way in which the oyatoi had a profound impact on Japanese schooling was their implementation of physical education programs. The Educational Code of 1872, the document that “gave shape and purpose to the post-Restoration school system,” made no mention of physical fitness; rather, Japanese education at the time emphasized the development of a “‘civilized man’ . . . someone of intellectual, and not necessarily physical, prowess" (4). The foreign experts, led by the American George Leland, voiced concern over these academic expectations, arguing that physical education was critical for the prevention of sickness and weakness. Therefore, a regimen of “light calisthenics” (kei taisō) was developed for primary schools (5). Over time, “light calisthenics” developed into “outdoor games” (kogai yūgi), which were ultimately replaced by Western team sports characterized by formal organization, rigorous training, strict rules, and officials.

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Baseball is thought to have been first introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, an American instructor at Kaisei Gakkō (which would later become a constituent school of the new Tokyo Imperial University) (10). Unlike George Leland and other believers in the “exceptional nature of American athletics,” Wilson and his contemporaries “were optimistic that Japanese students, if properly motivated and instructed, would excel in Western team sports” (6). This belief was not widely shared, though, and the concept of baseball as a sport uniquely suited to the American character would lead to tension in the coming decades, manifested especially in the contests between Ichikō and the Yokohama Athletic Club (see The Push for International Equality).

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In addition to foreign educators, Japanese students who studied in the United States also played a pivotal role in baseball’s remarkably rapid acceptance in Meiji Japan. One notable example of this phenomenon concerns Kido Takamasa and Okubo Toshikazu. These men were the youngest members of the well-known Iwakura Mission, an 1871-1873 trip that state leaders took to the United States and Europe to observe Western institutions and practices (12). Kido and Okubo both became avid baseball players, bringing the game they witnessed abroad to their companions at home in Japan. Perhaps the most influential of these foreign students was Hiraoka Hiroshi, who is considered to be the “father of Japanese baseball.” After studying in the United States and befriending Albert G. Spalding, Hiraoka taught baseball to the managerial staff at the Shimbashi Railroad Bureau and established the nation’s first private baseball club—the Shimbashi Athletic Club—in 1878 (2). His friendship with Spalding, who went on to own a baseball equipment manufacturing company, allowed for the rising Japanese clubs to receive modern equipment and connected Asia for the first time to the American sporting goods industry (3).

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Although other Western sports were contemporaneously introduced, baseball stood out to Japanese educators, commentators, and ministry officials “as an ideal combination of the display of individual talents and the need to coordinate those talents towards team objectives” (11). In the first few decades of the Meiji period, Japan searched for a national game (kokugi) that would display the collectivist ideal and fighting spirit of the nation. “Baseball, in particular, seemed to emphasize precisely those values that were celebrated in the civic rituals of the state: order, harmony, perseverance, and self-restraint” (7). Many elements of Western culture were met with resistance upon their introduction to Japanese society, especially those which clashed with traditional Japanese Confucian ideals. Baseball, on the other hand, integrated easily into Japanese culture. It was modern and exciting, which appealed to supporters of Westernization, and its implied values aligned with those accepted by the traditional intellectuals in Japanese society, giving them no reason to resist the new sport.

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Accordingly, baseball (or yakyū) quickly established itself as the emerging “national game” of Japan, replacing the traditional solitary sports of judo and kendo (8). It was exciting and team-oriented and satisfied the cultural criteria of the era. According to Donald Roden, “Japanese students, especially in the higher schools, turned to baseball in an effort to reify traditional values and to establish a new basis for national pride” (9). As the nation underwent a radical shift from the Tokugawa shogunate to imperial rule and saw a dizzying pace of modernization and change, the people of Japan looked to reaffirm and redefine their national identity (13). As baseball emerged as the national game, many hoped to utilize it as a vessel to modernize Japan and emulate the Western nations while also emphasizing the traditional values that gave Japan its historical identity.