The Dream and Realities of Japanese High School Baseball

Japanese are excited by high school baseball every summer. The local high school baseball tournaments take place every July. The winners of the championships can participate in the Koshien Championship in August. The newspapers and local TV stations report the local games everyday. Hoping to win the local high school baseball tournaments, people cheer a high school baseball team, among them students, alumni and hometown representatives.Many Japanese are excited by the Koshien tournament-more so than by the local high school baseball tournaments. NHK(Japan Broadcasting Corporation)broadcasts the entire tournament. The winners are current heroes or stars in Japan. They may be selected to become pro ball players in future. However, the over-heating of the Koshien tournament is a contemporary syndrome, because the semi-professionalization of high school baseball is taking place, though this is still at the high school level. There is a contradiction between high school education and semi-professionalism.I will examine Japanese high school baseball in this presentation: its nature, history, and today\u27s circumstances. Also, I will consider the syndrome, especially, of semi-professionalization. This paper will contribute to an understanding of Japanese, Japan\u27s high school education system and Japanese society