On March 19, 2025, Los Angeles Dogers and Chicago Cabes in Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan, after the MLB Tokyo opening series, waves of fans waves
Jane Wang | Getty Images
On March 19, the second and final game of the Major League Baseball Tokyo series between the Chicago Cabes and the Los Angeles Dodgers suffered snow in the Japanese capital city.
But in the morning, he did not queue more than a thousand people at the MLB store operating 31,100 square feet outside the Tokyo Dome in the morning.
This is a reflection of this type of impact on MLB business in Japan, which has increased its effect after signing 10 years of professional sports records with a professional sports record of a professional sports record of the time, after 10 years, after which, in addition to MLB, 50, and 50, in addition to the 50 -year -old.
According to East Asia’s Managing Director for fanatics, last year, fanatic, which operates globally MLB trade business, saw a 170 % increase in MLB sales in Japan year by year. In the last five years, in the last five years, all sales of MLB stores in Japan and Japan Japan have increased by 57 %, while the sales of Dodgers’ trade are more than 2,000 percent from the year when it has signed with the team.
Japan has a deep history of baseball and is the country’s most famous sport for both fans and participants. The MLB has also had a long connection to the country, which has been contested by Bern Storming Games, which shows that players like Baby Roth and Lou Ghereig play a deep relationship between MLB and Napoon Professional Baseball in exhibition sports in Japan.
Business and Media MLB Deputy Commissioner Noah Garden said that Japan is still the largest trade market in the league outside the United States and Canada, which is why it is attributed to these long -term investment.
“It’s not just overnight,” the Garden said. However, he added: “And then you have found this one of the skills of a lifetime.”
The Garden said that when the MLB looks around the world, “business goods are usually left behind with some pieces.”
In Japan, where the MLB “is just scratching the surface,” the Garden said, “Opportunities are bursting.”
According to the MLB, 25 million viewers saw the first game of this year’s Tokyo series in Japan, setting a new record of the most watched game in the country-Japan’s population is about 125 125 million. The second game has more than 23 million viewers.
Although this is not a definite comparison related to apple, the average average of 15.8 million viewers of the Dodgers New York Yankees 2024 World Series (and 12.1 million in Japan).
MLB plans to feed this growing fan base in Japan with material. The league had long had an office in the country, and recently it increased its original and translated Japanese content for the MLB app and MLB.com. It is also adding a newsletter and a material that follows Japanese -born players. Along with this, updating its MLB Game Day product, which provides game tracking and advanced stats, is in Japanese.
On March 18, 2025, fans created a photo for pictures before the baseball game between Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cabes in the Tokyo series outside Tokyo Dome in Tokyo.
Yuchi Yamazaki | AFP | Getty Images
The Garden said the growing audience league is changing the way to think about its next media rights agreement, with both international and domestic contracts ending after the 2028 season. “When the next collection of deals ends, you will find people who are looking for rights around the world, especially streamers,” the Garden said. “The amount of people engaged and watching with the game internationally has opened everyone’s eyes.”
For the Tokyo series, sports were broadcast locally on Over The Air NTV, as well as streaming on Amazon Prime.
The Garden said it also has sponsorship, the Garden said, “US companies have seen the opportunity to break more in the Japanese market, while Japanese companies are not only able to work with MLB locally but can also reach American consumers.” In the last two years, MLB has signed 14 new sponsor in Japan, and the Tokyo Series League was the largest international sponsorship program ever, which increased the revenue by 240 % against the 2024 Seoul series played in the South Korean city of Seoul.
The Garden said, “We are taking advantage of such changes at the same time.
“The League expects the Tokyo series” the most successful international sport that we have done financially, “the Garden said.
In addition to the exhibition sports between MLB teams and local Japanese sports, two sports between Cabs and Dodgers were quick -run out. The demand was so high, sports were broadcast in Japan about 150 movie theaters.
MLB said that the Tokyo series recorded the best trading sales of any MLB International event, in which sales eclipse 2024 London series by 320 %. The sale at the store in Tokyo Dome left behind every MLB All -Star Saturday, which sells more than half a million products. Surprisingly, the most popular item was a jersey with the Tokyo series patch.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told The New York Times that he expects the Tokyo Series to set a record on the board for the league’s special program, and can carry up to $ 35 million. However, he said that his major goal is to increase the league’s total business there: “We believe that there are salaries in B: billions,” Menfid told the Times.
Japanese fans to all MLB players, teams
Justin Turner of the Chicago Cabes is conflicting with #3 young fans who wear fake beards before the game against Yamuri Giants in Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on March 16, 2025.
Canta Hord | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
This development will continue to be just as Evatani, as well as the Dodgers ‘cotton Sasaki and Yoshinobo Yamamoto, and other Japanese -born players such as Cabes’ Ammnaga and Sia Suzuki, as well as MLB. But the challenge for MLB and its partners to reach this high goal is to create the rest of the league players in Japan.
David Leener, the president of the trading card for the components of the fanatics, where he oversees the tops, said that the baseball fondam in Japan is undeniable, not only the Japanese MLB stars but also the local NPB teams.
“The topps have increased its business in eight personalities in the country,” said Leaner, with a slight faster spraying in growth.
The company has licenses for Japanese baseball and football leagues as well as other entertainment features, and Lioner said the fanatics have seen the ability to produce the market above nine data.
Lioner said the Japanese baseball card collecting is not very different from the US, but an important difference is how much they look to help players in their country. He said, “Do they want Derek Jater (card) or mic trout (card)?
Lioner said that because of this, the Japanese players have helped these teams, and it lasts over time – for example, with the team, there is a part of Seattle Marine fans in Japan because of the time of Achiru Suzuki. But there are other examples that this is a fast event, as Japanese fans approached a player and then when the player left the MLB, he stopped following him. Now, the Japanese players are helping to create a wider fandom for MLB, the growth of players, and their effects within the league.
Last season, on the opening day, MLB rosters had 10 Japanese -born players, the highest 11 since 2013. While some other countries representing the league like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela are significantly trails-which contained 108 and 58 players on opening day rosters respectively-some countries can compete with the star power of the current Japanese players. The MLB has not yet needed to finalize the opening day rosters of 2025, but the number of Japanese players is expected to increase.
Kawana, who is based in Tokyo, said that although Japanese fans have historically been focusing on players’ funds, they are now seeing the team’s progress, especially because it has become easier to follow these teams.
Keeping MLB teams on the ground has not been hurt. Earlier this year, the last time MLB played official games in Japan, and the Garden said that the League is hoping that when it agrees with its new CBA, which is about to end in 2026, it will come with a “bigger (international) plan”.
The MLB will host a sports slate in the Mexican city of Mexico, Mexico later this month.
“It’s been years to make such things, and it takes a long time for young people to become more mature,” said the Garden. “Now you are seeing the end of it, and it should begin a new era of prosperity for MLB and baseball in Asia.”
