What Is The NPB?
The Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league (日本のプロ野球 or にほんのやきゅう) is Japan’s premiere baseball association. 日本のプロ野球 consists of 12 teams, split up into two leagues, the Central League (セントラル・リーグ) and the Pacific League (パシフィック・リーグ). Each league has six teams and they are similar to the American and National leagues in the MLB.
With the start of the 2021 regular season on March 26, Japanese professional baseball is well on it’s way after a unique 2020 season (much like the MLB’s changes due to Covid-19).
The 2020 NPB champions were the SoftBank Hawks from Fukuoka, their 4th title in a row, and 7th title since 2011. They defeated the Yomiuri Giants in the Japan Series (equivalent to the MLB’s World Series) for the second straight season to win the championship, easily making them the most dominant NPB team of the decade.
Why Am I Covering The NPB?
My interest in the NPB is two-fold.
First off, this being my blog, I think it is obvious that I like baseball. So it’s no surprise that I came to be interested in 日本のプロ野球. The NPB is one of the best professional baseball associations outside of the Major Leagues in America. They play high quality ball along with producing some of the world’s top players. The NPB, in recent decades has pushed great players such as Shohei Ohtani, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Hideo Nomo, Yu Darvish and countless others into the MLB.
Secondly, I am in the process of moving to Tokyo, Japan and I expect to be there in April of 2022. I will be attending a Japanese language school, with the hopes of one day becoming fluent in the language. My plans are to work in journalism and continue covering professional baseball, in this case 日本のプロ野球.
If all goes well, articles like this one will become the norm, and I will slowly start to incorporate Japanese into my writing (you may have noticed a little bit of Japanese in this piece). The addition of Japanese into my articles will also help me strengthen the language I want to learn and allow me to use it in a different way than a normal language student would. I get to mesh a few of my passions onto this page and that’s the dream.
Independent coverage of the MLB will still happen, I just plan on putting out NPB content as well.
Here’s a list of the NPB’s leagues and teams, along with English-Japanese terms that appear in this article.
NPB Teams
Central League (セントラル・リーグ)
- Yomiuri Giants
- Hanshin Tigers
- Chunichi Dragons
- Yokohama DeNA Baystars
- Hiroshima Toyo Carp
- Tokyo Yakult Swallows
Pacific League (パシフィック・リーグ)
- Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
- Chiba Lotte Marines
- Saitama Seibu Lions
- Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
- Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
- ORIX Buffaloes
English – Japanese Terms:
- Hello – こんにちは
- I’m Evyn – エヴィンです
- Japanese Professional Baseball – 日本のプロ野球 or にほんのやきゅう
- Central League – セントラル・リーグ
- Pacific League – パシフィック・リーグ
