The Crisis in Pro Baseball and Japan's Lost Decade

ISBN-13: 9781032541709 / Twarda / 2023 / 232 str.

Paul Dunscomb

Opis

This book examines Japan’s Heisei era through the lens of the crisis in Japanese professional baseball of 2004, challenging the narrative of decline which dominates the discourse on the period.

Recenzje

“Dr. Paul Dunscomb expertly shows that Japan's pro baseball is both a national sport and a barometer of national change. Accessibly written with remarkable detail, Japan's Pro Baseball Crisis of 2004 challenges prevailing views of Heisei-period Japan through the story of an industry in crisis, its major players, and the larger lessons it teaches about society, economics and resilience.”

 Alisa Freedman, Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture, University of Oregon, USA.

 

 

“Baseball may be Japan’s national pastime, but in 2004 the financial struggles of the Japanese professional leagues erupted onto the headlines as a full-fledged spectator sport. In a fast-paced

narrative that takes readers into the boardroom (as well as the locker room), Paul Dunscomb tells

the engrossing story of a pivotal moment in the evolution of Japanese baseball, when elite club

owners, players and their unions, maverick tech entrepreneurs, a sensationalistic sports media,

and loyal (but often marginalized) fans jockeyed for the future of the game. Adeptly

contextualizing professional baseball within the sweeping changes in society, politics, and

business during Japan’s millennial “Lost Decade,” this volume is an essential addition to the

scholarly literature on Japanese sports and a major contribution to the history of contemporary

Japan.”

 William M. Tsutsui, Professor of Japanese History and President, Ottawa University (Ottawa, KS), Canada.

Spis treści

Introduction: The Squeeze  1. Baseball as Business within Postwar Japan’s Political Economy, to 1992  2. Lost Decades: Troubles for Japan and NPB, 1992–2003  3. The Storm Gathers, Then Breaks, January–June 2004  4. The Crisis Broadens, Then Deepens, June–July 2004  5. Unstoppable Forces Meet Immovable Objects, July–September 2004  6. The Strike, September 2004  7. The New Normal, September–December 2004  Conclusion. “When You Come to the Fork in the Road, Take it.”               

O autorze

Paul E. Dunscomb is Professor of East Asian History at the University of Alaska Anchorage, US. He is author of Japan’s Siberian Intervention, 1918–1922: A Great Disobedience Against the People (2011), the first ever complete narrative of the event in English, and Japan Since 1945 (2014) for the Association for Asian Studies Key Issues in Asian Studies Series. He has written and presented extensively on matters relating to the history of Heisei Japan. His current research project marries his knowledge of Alaskan and Japanese history into a new and comprehensive look at how the Second World War affected the fate not only of Alaska and its peoples but also the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin and residents of Northern Japan.