I have three tickets tomorrow for the Swallows and Dragons at Jingu Stadium.

NPB's all-star game and Sunday's election both highlight a huge problem: How should Japan best accommodate the imported talent it so badly needs? jballallen.com/japan-and-np...

Trevor Bauer's struggles continued Wednesday, but at least he didn't murder anyone, unlike two NPB pitchers I've known... jballallen.com/tough-times-...

A story Kyodo News did not want published: how NPB teams have used their COVID 19 emergency powers to drastically reduce and control press access to this day. jballallen.com/japans-white...

A story Kyodo News did not want published: how NPB teams have used their COVID 19 emergency powers to drastically reduce press access to this day. jballallen.com/japans-white...

After 26 years inside the world of Japanese baseball, I am finally finally free — and it feels good. In a country where most fight to stay on the inside, I’m now on the outside, where truth is permitted and sometimes even welcomed. jballallen.com/inside-out/

There are powerful forces behind the Japanese media's spineless reporting -- as I learned the hard way this spring when trying to continue reporting on baseball as an independent after being mandatorily retired. jballallen.com/japans-sound...

How would you go about identifying the most dominant pitching seasons in NPB history? I gave it a shot as I try to identify Japan's most dominant seasons and stretches? The best three-year stretch in history might be a surprise... jballallen.com/japans-most-...

Have 2 tickets to the July 1 Hawks-Fighters game at Tokyo Dome if anyone Is interested.

Ike was hated by Republicans who wanted a president who believed that some people were born to rule and others were born to be exploited.

Baseball has difficulty dealing with people who think differently, and Japan shares this handicap. My experience as a neurodivergent member of Japan's baseball media. jballallen.com/baseball-thi...

I've thought long and hard about the late Shigeo Nagashima and his place in the baseball cosmos, not as the ultimate player or manager, but as the ultimate showman in a nation that badly needed him. jballallen.com/nagashima-a-...

Interested in attending an NPB game with the only foreign journalist to cast votes in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame? jballallen.com/at-the-ballp...

In addition to private ballpark tours, I am offering guided historic private and group tours of Tokyo, making use of my 40-plus years experience in Japan.

Since being put out to pasture by Kyodo News, I have found an interesting new side gig, giving tours of Tokyo for a local company, where I put my 40 years of fascination with Japan to good use. I am, however, now hosting private tours--including trips to ballparks--for those visiting Japan.

Lotte Marines looking to abandon Chiba Marine Stadium and move across the street. jballallen.com/marines-look...

With a win finally under his belt, Seibu Lions pitcher Kona Takahashi opens up a bit about his disastrous, winless 2024 season that interrupted his smooth progress toward MLB. t.co/ue1C7ewlE5

With a win finally under his belt, Seibu Lions pitcher Kona Takahashi opens up a bit about his disastrous, winless 2024 season that interrupted his smooth progress toward a move to MLB. jballallen.com/takahashi-op...

A recent disagreement with Warren Cromartie led me down a research rabbit hole, asking when exactly do Japanese players reach their prime? jballallen.com/prime-time/

DeNA and Hiroshima played a game of closer Russian Roulette, three Swallows had a memorable game, and Hawks manager Hiroki Kokubo thinks things "can't get worse." jballallen.com/npb-news-apr...

"When publicizing your product is a bad thing" -- my subscribers newsletter is now out. mailchi.mp/00bd4009e82c...

Masahiro Tanaka is back as a Giant, there was a Maddux and a spiffy pitchers' duel between Anthony Kay and Jon Duplantier, while Seibu remains winless regardless of what I wrote Wednesday. jballallen.com/npb-news-apr...

As promised: The fight over letting fans share video of games, and NPB's refusal to sell its marquee products and games overseas reveal Japanese pro baseball's hypocritical heart of darkness, how team independence masks their true subservient status. jballallen.com/npbs-fear-of...

Japan's winless have won, and nobody's perfect, not the Lotte Marines, who finally lost, and not Hayato Sakamoto, who faces a taxing situation... jballallen.com/npb-news-apr...

New Dragon Kyle Muller had a nifty nine-strikeout NPB debut, DeNA's Andre Jackson kept rolling, and Livan Moinelo gave SoftBank some good news on a dark day. jballallen.com/npb-news-apr...

Pitcher Jay Jackson is finally leaving pro baseball. As a player, he won a legion of fans, suffered serious heartbreak, and was entrapped in a bizarre legal entanglement. He also helped me learn how one part of Japanese baseball is not like the others'. jballallen.com/jay-jackson-...

Offer ending soon: New paid subscriptions to jballallendotcom by midnight April 1 get 2 free months of unfettered access to my NPB databases, live zoom chats with former players, coaches, and managers, and all paid content. jballallen.com/register/?le...

福留孝介：今永選手は、私が越えられなかったMLBの壁を超えている.　「もっともっと積極的になれてたら良かったと思う。」 t.co/tiSdsr859f

Our first weekend's worth of games wrapped up Sunday, with three sweeps, some weird streaks and a weird play on a day when a nemesis spoiled Naoyuki Uwasawa's return to NPB. jballallen.com/npb-news-mar...

Takuya Kai and Trey Cabbage continued to make coleslaw out of Yakult pitching as Yomiuri remained one of four unbeaten teams after two days of Japan's young season. jballallen.com/npb-news-mar...

Japan's major leagues kicked off their 2025 season Friday with a fun slate of games including a banger for new-import Trey Cabbage and a pair of complete games. jballallen.com/opening-day-...

Friday is Opening Day! Until April 1. New paid subscriptions to jballallendotcom get 2 free months of unfettered access to my NPB databases, live zoom chats with former players, coaches, and managers, and all paid content. jballallen.com/register/?le...

MLBの東京開幕戦で日本人選手のの実力が証明されたが、日本プロ野球の将来はどうなるのか？ jballallen.com/%e6%97%a5%e6...

Only three days to Opening Day. New paid subscriptions to jballallendotcom get 2 free months of unfettered access to my NPB databases, live zoom chats with former players, coaches, and managers, and all paid content. Offer good through April 1, 2025 jballallen.com/register/?le...

MLBの東京開幕試合は完売だったが、日本プロ野球の封建的支配者たちによる、さらに大きな”売り渡し”でもあった。 jballallen.com/mlb%e3%81%a8...

Jason Kendall talks about the quality of Japanese catching, as he and Akinori Iwamura suggest how both Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball both could be better if they paid more attention to what the other is doing. jballallen.com/fundamentall...

I’m 6’2” but whenever I see that sign, I think perhaps Manute Bol may have bumped his head there…

Post a warning.

For a change, I'm not ragging (much) on either Major League Baseball or Nippon Professional Baseball but reflecting on what former players said last week about ways both could be better. jballallen.com/fundamentall...

Five days to NPB Opening Day. New paid subscriptions to jballallendotcom get 2 free months of unfettered access to my NPB databases, live zoom chats with former players, coaches, and managers, and all paid content. Offer good through April 1, 2025 jballallen.com/register/?le...

MLB bringing some of Japan's best players to Tokyo was great theater but also an indicator that individual talent in Japan is getting better and better while NPB continues to live in the past with no direction or plan. jballallen.com/japanese-pla...

Only six days to Opening Day. New paid subscriptions to jballallendotcom get 2 free months of unfettered access to my NPB databases, live zoom chats with former players, coaches, and managers, and all paid content. Offer good through April 1, 2025 jballallen.com/register/?le...

Opening Day is on the way. New paid subscriptions to jballallendotcom get 2 free months of unfettered access to my NPB databases, live zoom chats with former players, coaches, and managers, and all paid content. Offer good through April 1, 2025 jballallen.com/register/

MLB's Tokyo openers displayed the extreme quality of native-born stars and a threat to NPB's future growth. jballallen.com/japanese-pla...

Looks pretty standard Sasaki to me….

It is no understatement to say I would not be where I am today without Sadaharu Oh, who as Daiei Hawks manager 26 years ago patiently indulged this nobody reporter and his truly horrible Japanese on the sidelines before games to answer my questions about why Japanese baseball's customs and culture.

Opening Day is almost here! New paid subscriptions to jballallendotcom get 2 free months of unfettered access to my NPB databases, live zoom chats with former players, coaches, and managers, and all paid content. Offer good through April 1, 2025 jballallen.com/register/?le...

Kosuke Fukudome discusses his failure to adjust to life in MLB and praised Shota Imanaga for succeeding where he failed. jballallen.com/fukudome-ima...

“I’m sure every baseball player in Japan was watching this game,” said Dave Roberts, oblivious to the fact that the Hawks and Giants played a night game and a bunch of high schoolers were preparing for tomorrow’s games at the vastly more important national spring invitational.

Tokyo Dome has shrunk by 12,635 since MLB’s first two Opening series here, when everyone knew it didn’t hold the 55,000 MLB was required to announce as its official attendance. What changed was NPB’s decision after the 2004 strike to begin announcing “realistic” figures.